ND 2002: The one who would seize glory will destroy the island upon which he was born, a land by the name of Hod. War shall thereafter persist between Kimlasca and Malkuth for a full cycle of the seasons.
Tales of the Abyss.
Act I
On the 23rd day of the year ND 2018, the game opens on a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead having headaches.In Baticul, capitol city of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, Luke fon Fabre is an Upper-Class Twit. A Royal Brat, he's fourth in line to the throne... and has been kept locked in the mansion owned by his protective parents. He also has weird headaches and hears a voice talking to him about him (Luke) being a fragment of his (the voice's) soul. This must be a recurring thing; Guy Cecil, Luke's manservant and only friend, knows about them. Apparently, they have been occurring ever since Luke was kidnapped by the Malkuth Empire 7 years ago.
Luke is summoned by his father, Duke Fabre, to the drawing room. Within, Master Van Grants waits. A Master Swordsman, Van trains Luke in the ways of combat... when he's not fulfilling other duties. It turns out that "Dorian General Grants" has been called back to "Daath" — he's not only a member of the Oracle Knights (AKA the religious military, serving the "Fon Master," the Order's equivalent of a pope), he is is in fact their leader. Luke shows his provincialism by not even knowing who Fon Master Ion is — much less that he had brokered the peace treaty between Kimlasca-Lanvaldear and Malkuth in the wake of the Hod War. It transpires that Ion has gone missing, which is why Van, and everyone else who works for the Order, is rushing back to duty.
Luke's Establishing Character Moment kicks in: It's All About Me. He wants Van to drop everything and teach him. His mother Susanne surges to his rescue, claiming it's down to the trauma of the kidnapping, which inflicted Laser-Guided Amnesia and wiped his memory of his first 10 years of life — and the boredom of, ever since returning, not being allowed to leave the mansion.
In the courtyard, Van is speaking to Guy about the situation. Though Luke's arrival cuts the conversation short, it sounds very much as though the two are conspiring together. This will be important later.
While Van takes Like through the requisite combat engine tutorial, someone invades the house. It's a young woman with light brown hair, who uses some sort of Magic Music to put everyone to sleep. She's apparently here to kill Van, whom she calls "Vandesdelca." The woman, whom Van calls "Tear," jumps away as Van defends himself, but when she gets near Luke, something unexpected happens: apparently, both of them are Seventh Fonists, and the reaction of the two of them getting near each other causes both of them to be teleported away unexpectedly. As they do, Luke hears the voice from his headaches, beckoning him.
As Luke wakes up in... wherever-they-landed... Tear apologizes. While she was indeed sent to kill Van, she has nothing against Luke personally, and admits that her own carelessness caused the "hyperresonance" which brought them here. Luke, of course, is having none of it; a Fish out of Water, he has no idea what she's talking about and no idea where they are. He has trouble identifying that they have landed on a seacoast because he's never seen a sea before. Whatever the case, Tear feels honor-bound to take him back to Baticul, and the two set out together.
Tear joins the party. While she's seen wielding throwing knives when she attacks Van, she utilizes a magic wand when fighting in the Player Party, flinging little globs of energy at enemies. She also possesses "Fonic Hymns," the Magic Music she utilized earlier, as well as healing spells, and eventually some hard-hitting fonic attack artes. Luke, meanwhile, ascribes to the "Heroes Prefer Swords" school of thought, wielding a curved, single-hand, single-edged blade most easily compared to a Chinese dao
. He fights left-handed.
Luke and Tear encounter a coachman, who offers to take them to the capitol.note . As they travel, Luke gets his first look at the rest of the world: the coach must swerve out of the way as another coach, this one occupied by bandits called the "Dark Wings," comes rushing onward, being pursued by a large hovercraft. Luke and Tear's coachman marvels at the sight of that hovercraft, the Tartarus, Malkuth's latest and most powerful vehicle, and Luke panics at the discovery that he is deep in enemy territory: they're in Malkuth, and accidentally paid the fellow to take them to Grand Chokmah. They're also going to have to take the long way: The bandits blew a bridge behind them, cutting the coach off from the most direct route back to Kimlasca. Tear decides to have the guy drop them off in Engeve, the next village down the road, which serves as a logistics and foodstuffs center for Malkuth. The villagers there explain to her that their next best route is to head south to the Kaitzur checkpoint.
Meanwhile, Luke is excited at his chance to check out a real city for the first time. Engeve is, of course, not a city, but remember, Luke hasn't left the manor since losing his memory. You can think of him as being seven years old. This comparative immaturity is underlined when, at a vendor's stall, Luke grabs and eats an apple without having any concept of having to "pay" for it. (Tear has to give him a crash course on the existence of commerce.)
Tear and Luke attempt to visit the house of the mayor, Rose, but are distracted by a commotion outside one of the storehouses: it's been robbed bare. It's not the first time this has happened, and the villagers claim it began after some fires got started in the forest north of here. While Luke points out the Dark Wings might be at play, he still has that lingering reputation from "stealing" the apple. This is how Luke gets his audience with Rose — as a suspect of grand theft and conspirator to the Dark Wings. (Tear lets it happen, believing that Tough Love may be a useful learning experience.)
Rose, of course, has more important things to think about: Col. Jade Curtiss, Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces — the captain of the Tartarus — has dropped by for a visit. Tear is able to clear Luke's name simply by pointing out that she and Luke observed Jade driving the real Dark Wings back across Rotelro Bridge; Jade acknowledges that there is no way either of them could actually be the bandits in question. Additionally, Fon Master Ion has investigated the storehouse and discovered fur belonging to a "cheagle," the Ridiculously Cute Critter of Auldrant — not to mention the mascot of the Order of Lorelei. Tear is confused by, not Auldrant's Pope doing private investigative work, but the fact that he's walking around freely despite being reported as kidnapped. Ion is certainly not here under duress; when Luke and Tear take a room at the inn for the night, they encounter Anise Tatlin, a Fon Master Guardian (IE Praetorian Guard), here to perform her duties.
Of course, Luke is still upset about being called a thief. He declares that he and Tear will visit the Cheagle Woods the next morning to clear his name.
Within, they find Ion — a 14-year-old boy, after all, and so young he's actually voiced by a girl in all dubs of the game, including its OVA — cornered by some monsters. Luke introduces himself, and Ion observes that Luke has a Meaningful Name, meaning "light of the sacred flame" in ancient Ispanian. Meanwhile, Tear introduces herself as "Locrian Sergeant Tear Grants, First Platoon, Oracle Knights Intelligence Division, under Grand Maestro Mohs' command." Ion is very pleased to meet Van's younger sister. Luke is a bit confused as to why Tear would be trying to kill her own brother, but his attempts to worm an explanation out of her are derailed when a cheagle shows up. Luke chases after it, with Ion agreeing not to bring up the whole Sibling Murder thing again; Tear explains that it relates to their homeland.
Ion, a short fellow with light-green hair, is a Tagalong Kid. He does not join the Player Party as a controllable combat asset, but nonetheless accompanies Luke as a Non-Player Character through much of his journeys, providing a World Half Full, Rousseau Was Right counterbalance to Luke's self-centered naiveté and Tear's world-weary cynicism. While Tear at first objects to taking Ion into direct danger, Luke points out that he's too frail to be left alone. He also instructs Ion to stand back from the fighting. Maybe the Jerk Has A Heart Of Gold in there somewhere.
Outside a hollow tree, Ion finds apples from Engeve, proving the "cheagles stole the food" theory. Inside that tree, they encounter the cheagle elder, who can speak with humans due to the power of the "Sorcerer's Ring," which was gifted to the cheagles by Yulia Jue when she first treated with them. The elder explains that a young cheagle accidentally started a fire in the north part of the forest, with the result that the "ligers" who normally live up there came down here, displacing the cheagles and necessitating the stealing of human food for use as tribute. Luke, having gotten to the bottom of the mystery, is ready to clear his name, but Tear points out that this could cause the ligers to attack Engeve instead, and Ion points out the town is a breadbasket for the whole world, not just Malkuth. Instead, he proposes to negotiate with the ligers, for which they will need an interpreter who wears the Sorcerer's Ring. The cheagle elder chooses... the young one that started the fire. This cheagle, Mieu, becomes the Team Mascot, to Tear's secret glee and Luke's ire. Luke immediately calls him "Thing".
For those who aren't aware, the "Sorcerer's Ring" is a recurring tool in the Tales series. Typically it starts out by allowing the player to shoot fireballs — in this case, it unlocks Mieu's native Breath Weapon — and serves as a puzzle-solving tool by allowing players to burn away foliage or even stun oncoming enemies to avoid an encounter. In this case, Luke uses it to cross a river by (using Thing for) shooting fire at the roots of a rotten tree, forming a bridge. Of course, this short Cut Scene helps show the Dysfunction Junction that is our Player Party:
- Tear: The liger's lair is up ahead, right?
Mieu: Yes! We cross the river and keep going.
Luke: How are we supposed to cross the river when there's no bridge?
Ion: We'll just have to wade through the river.
Luke: Are you serious? My shoes, my clothes... Everything'll get drenched! No way!
Tear: Fine. You can stay here. Someone who cares that much about his clothing would just get in the way.
Luke: Excuse me?! (he looks around and sees the tree) Hey, Thing. Breathe fire on that tree's roots.
Mieu: Mieu?
Luke (grabbing Mieu and pointing him bodily in the right direction) You heard me! Breathe fire already!
(Mieu does, and the tree tips over)
Luke: Heh. What do you think of that?
Ion: I see. The tree's roots were rotten. Excellent thinking, Luke.
Luke (unused to praise): ...Heh. This is nothing.
Tear: Indeed. Mieu is the one who deserves thanks.
Luke: H-Hey!
Tear: I thought it was "nothing" for you. And stop yelling.
The party gets to the liger den, where the liger queen reposes. She declines to negotiate with Ion and the cheagles, and Tear resolves that Murder Is the Best Solution. It's the first Boss Battle of the game, and not an easy one: the Liger Queen has 10 times more HP than Luke and Tear put together. Oh, and then she starts breathing lightning. The solution comes when Jade drops in: he's Lv.45 (your characters are like Lv.5 right now) and has 3 times more HP than Luke and Tear together. Though he has a lance he keeps in Hammerspace for melee situations, Jade is actually a Squishy Wizard, capable of hurling devastating fonic artes at the enemy. He's also in his mid-thirties, which both explains his advanced level and blows the normal Competence Zone straight out of the water. Luke and Tear run interference for Col. Curtiss while he pours on the hurt, easily chunking away 10% of the Liger Queen's HP with each spell.
Afterwards, as Luke grumbles over the dirty work of killing innocent liger cubs, Jade quips about the lover's quarrel between him and Tear. ("We don't have that kind of relationship," Tear protests.) Jade then upbraids Ion for not only running off to resolve the cheagle problem without help, for not only using Daathic fonic artes when the doctor told him not to, but for dragging innocent civilians into the mess with him. Ion Apologizes a Lot, and Jade — and, for that matter, Tear — are surprised when Luke defends Ion, pointing out that the kid has in fact apologized.
Jade, having dispatched Anise to bring the Tartarus to the entrance of the forest, formally arrests Luke and Tear as the Seventh Fonists he's been looking for. Luke's father is not precisely loved within Malkuth due to the ongoing animosity between the countries — what Kimlasca calls "a hero of the Hod War," Malkuth would call something very different — so (on Tear's advice) Luke has kept his identity secret until now; he reveals it to Jade, describing himself as "the one you guys tried to kidnap." (Anise, learning Luke is the heir apparent to a duchy, becomes instantly interested in him. Anise is 13.) Tear explains the hyperresonance, and Jade decides to release Luke, as his activities are certainly more consistent with "Hikikomori Sheltered Aristocrat The Ditz" than "covert operative".
Jade takes the opportunity to ask a favor of this scion of Kimlasca. Despite the truce between Kimlasca and Malkuth organized by Ion's predecessor in the wake of the Hod War, in which an entire territory of Malkuth was destroyed, border skirmishes are erupting. Emperor Peony IX of Malkuth has decided to sue for a formal peace, sending it with his right-hand man Col. Jade Curtiss; Fon Master Ion has been recruited as a neutral party. The reason Ion has "gone missing" is because Grand Maestro Mohs, a conservative, wants the war to continue and had Ion imprisoned; Jade helped the Fon Master escape. Now the two of them want Luke's help... or, rather, the doors his name will open.
- Luke: Didn't anyone ever teach you to bow your head in respect when asking someone for a favor?
Jade: (sigh)
(Jade walks over and kneels extravagantly)
Jade: Master Luke, please grant us your aid!
Luke: Man, do you have any pride?
Jade: None so cheap as to be shaken by something as petty as this, sir.
Luke: ...Tch. Fine, whatever. You just need me to talk to my uncle, right?
Jade: You have my deepest gratitude. Now by your leave, Master Luke, I must attend to other matters.
Luke: Stop calling me "Master". Coming from you, it's just... wrong.
Jade: As you wish, "Master" Luke.
Almost the instant Luke agrees, the Tartarus comes under attack. In addition to a flock of organized monsters, the ship is boarded, with Luke literally running into one of them: a large and imposing man who addresses Col. Curtiss as "Jade the Necromancer." (Tear, despite her cultivated cool, is astonished at the epithet.) Jade, meanwhile, names the assailant as "Largo the Black Lion, one of the six God-Generals of the Oracle Knights." The God-Generals are the Quirky Miniboss Squad of the game, so we'll be seeing them a lot. Since Jade is Lv.45, it's likely to be an easy fight... but Largo has a "fon slot seal," which depowers Jade back down to a mere Lv.5; from this point on, he works through the seal at — undoubtedly by coincidence — the same rate as the other party members, gaining levels in parallel. That said, Jade still has Tear, Anise, Mieu and his wits: he order Mieu to breathe fire and cause a Telepathic Sprinklers distraction, and then stabs Largo with his spear. He sends Anise to secure Fon Master Ion, while he and Tear resolve to take back the ship — after a bit of prodding towards Luke; if Luke was shaken to have to kill unborn ligers, he's positively catatonic at the sight of human blood being spilled. It is the first time Luke has ever seen a human intentionally spill another human's blood.
Outside the bridge, Tear uses her fonic hymn to put a Mook to sleep. She and Jade take back the ship while Luke is assigned to stand guard. Unfortunately, Luke's bickering with Mieu wakes the guard. Luke, who isn't ready to use violence as a solution, must defend himself in a life-or-death combat situation. Tear and Jade, emerging to see the commotion was, find Luke in a full-blown "These Hands Have Killed" funk... but are interrupted by someone new:
- Someone New: If you're scared of killing, then throw away your sword, you worthless reject!
The newcomer wears a black Badass Longcoat and wields a black sword, whereas Luke's are white (and silver). The newcomer has a mane of long red hair, same as Luke. The newcomer wears his sword for a right-hand draw, whereas Luke swings with his left. He is only seen from the back, so we don't know what his face looks like, but he does have the same voice actor as Luke (either Chihiro Suzuki in the original Japanese or Yuri Lowenthal in the English dub). Notice This.
The newcomer, "Asch," is another of the Six God-Generals; apparently, most of them are here. His intervention allows the Daathi loyalists to capture Luke's party, but as far as Jade is concerned, that just puts them in a better position to rescue Fon Master Ion when he's brought back to the Tartarus. Luke, however, protests the idea of further armed conflict, concerned with the Unfortunate Implications of slaughtering Red Shirts. Both Jade and Tear have to join forces to convince him to carry on with the mission, pointing out that a refusal to kill now could lead to millions of deaths later if war breaks out. Jade then trips a failsafe he planted in advance, sabotaging the Tartarus. He then helps escape the ship by figuring out a moving-box puzzle.
- Tear: So, we just need to move these boxes, then? (she begins trying to move one of them)
Jade: That's right. By the way, Luke, I can't say I think much of you forcing a woman to do the heavy lifting.
Tear: I'm fine, Colonel.
Jade: Or do rich aristocratic boys lack any muscles? Sigh, and here I thought even your brain was made of muscle.
Luke: What did you say?! (joins Tear, starts pushing)
Luke: ...Wait a minute. You're a guy, too. You help out.
Jade: No, I'd rather not. You're younger than I am, after all. At my age, all my joints ache...
Outside, Jade manages to get the drop on "Major Legretta," one of the Six God-Generals, who currently has Ion hostage and is bringing him back to the Tartarus. Jade gets her to drop her guns... but the party is attacked from behind by another of them, "Arietta," The Beastmaster who controls wild animals. That standoff is disrupted by, of all people, Guy, who disarms Legretta via Goomba Stomp. Legretta and Arietta, who still takes Ion's orders, go back inside the Tartarus, and Jade seals them in. Ion admits that he lost the letter containing Emperor Peony's peace proposal, but it's possible Anise has it, and if so she will rendezvous with them at St. Binah, a town to the southeast.
Guy joins the party, the fourth character to do so. He uses the same swords as Luke does, but where Luke is the Lightning Bruiser, Guy is a Fragile Speedster, an Iaijutsu Practitioner who has no fonic artes to his name. He mentions that Duke Fabre sent him to look for Luke; he came overland by Chesedonia, while General Grants crossed into Kaitzur. Additionally, during an optional scene where the party stops to let Ion recover from his intense spellcasting, we get an Establishing Character Moment: he's happy to shake hands with Ion and Jade, but when Tear steps up, he freaks out. Guy has gynophobia (fear of women), and has for as long as Luke can remember. Naturally, this is Played for Laughs.
The laughs end, of course, when a group of Oracle Knights show up. Luke surges into battle, still uncertain about his willingness to kill. The fight ends with the last Oracle Knight on his knees before Luke, with the others encouraging Luke to Finish Him!. Luke, of course, can't: he hesitates just long enough for the Mook to get his own sword up. In for a Taking the Bullet moment is Tear herself. Luke is astonished as the woman who has no reason to care about him, and clearly doesn't much respect him, still throws herself in between him and harm's way.
The party settles down for the night to let Tear recover from her (thankfully, minor) injuries. While Luke is clearly upset at letting Tear take wounds on his behalf, all the others — even Tear herself — are supportive of his greater respect for the sanctity of life. In the morning, as they move out, Luke finds his Heroic Resolve and agrees to fight — and, if necessary, to kill — for what he believes in.
At St. Binah, Jade takes the party to the local Malkuth military base, where Field Marshal McGovern (ret'd) and his son Glen have the command. Anise isn't here, but she has left a letter saying she'll be heading on to Kaitzur — and pledging her eternal love to Luke. (To repeat, Anise is 13.) However, before the team can set out, Ion begs a night's rest at the inn; he admits that the Daathi loyalists escorted him to one of the planet's ten "Sephiroth" — its fon slots, a Place of Power where fonons go into and out of the planet. He can't say what he was doing there, claiming it's Classified Information. Jade, observing Ion's fatigue, wonders privately if "he's the same as Luke". (Stay at the inn a second time for a short Cut Scene in which Guy teaches Luke the "Sonic Thrust" attack.)
The party must cross the Fubras River to get to Kaitzur. Here they encounter Arietta the Wild, who corners them with ligers. She is here to avenge the liger queen, whom she calls "Mommy." (Ion explains that she was Raised By Ligers after being orphaned in the Hod War.) Unfortunately, the standoff is interrupted by a convenient earthquake... and less-convenient miasma, a Fog of Doom that kills you if you breathe too much of it. Arietta and the ligers get knocked out, while Tear uses a fonic hymn — not just any fonic hymn, but one of the seven hymns composed by Yulia Jue, which very few are skilled enough to learn — to neutralize the stuff. Jade prepares to kill Arietta, unwilling to leave a live enemy behind him, but entreaties from Luke ("You Monster!") and Ion (Arietta is still one of his Praetorian Guard) stay his hand. After they leave, Jade questions Tear about Yulia's hymns, and Tear admits that she can only use them because she — and therefore, Master Van as well — are supposedly descended from Yulia herself.
Kaitzur is a fortress city which holds a border checkpoint, allowing people (with passports) to go between Kimlasca and Malkuth. Here the team catches up with Anise, who has managed to keep the Emperor's letter safe. However, Tear and Luke still don't have passports. This becomes a lesser problem when Asch arrives, swinging for Luke. He's stopped by, of all people, Van himself, who orders Asch to stand down — Asch may have his own agenda, but Van is his commanding officer. Van then catches up with the party, particularly Jade, as to what's been going on. Van explains that the God-Generals, though nominally under his command, are still part of the Grand Maestro faction and have presumably been acting under orders from Mohs. Since Tear's intelligence service reports directly to Mohs, she technically is as well. Tear is not at liberty to say that she is searching for the Seventh Fonstone — part of the Score Yulia Jue read 2,000 years ago. The Fonstones, the party explains to a clueless Luke, were the size of mountains and broke apart, with some staying in the sky, and others falling to earth where both Kimlasca and Malkuth went to war to obtain them: after all, if you have one, you know part of the future. Apparently, Yulia herself hid the Seventh Fonstone after reading it, so the biggest problem with this prophecy is that no one knows how it ends. In the meanwhile, Van orders the Six God-Generals to back off, and also hands over the temporary passports Duke Fabre gave him.
Ionian Sergeant Anise Tatlin, Oracle Knights Fon Master Guard, joins the party. Despite being the youngest and shortest member of the team, she serves as The Big Guy: she wears a doll named Tokunaga like a backpack, and during combat segments she magically embiggens it to full-grown-adult size. She wields the same magic wands as Tear, though to very different effect, using it to control Tokunaga, supplemented by Yin-Yang Bomb spellcasting in Shadow and Light flavors. A Mighty Glacier, she excels in defense and in slower, more deliberate combos.
Luke's party make it through the checkpoint and then to Kaitzur Naval Port, where they'll take a ship back to the Kimlascan mainland. However, the port is under attack by (as Anise calls her) "Gloomietta." Arietta has damaged the ships at the port — apparently, under Asch's orders — and has kidnapped the engineer who can repair them. She and Asch are holding that engineer hostage at Choral Castle. The castle apparently used to be Duke Fabre's vacation home, but Luke has no memory of it — despite this being the place they found him after he was kidnapped. In any case, it's Fetch Quest time.
The main point of interest in Choral Castle is a door that's been sealed by fontech. Behind it, they find a machine. Jade seems to recognize it, though he refuses to say anything more. Guy notes that the machine seems to be related to Luke's kidnapping, but his train of thought is derailed when Anise, scared of something, accidentally touches him and Guy launches into a full-blown Freak Out. He admits that there's part of his memory that is blocked out, which presumably holds the reason for his gynophobia — and also involves the question of how his family died. He refuses to speak on it further, much as Jade refuses to share his ruminations on the machine. This party does not trust each other.
Arietta manges to take Luke hostage. She squares off with Anise; It's Personal, because Arietta used to be Ion's personal bodyguard as Anise is now, and Arietta resents the demotion. Meanwhile, Luke is delivered into the lap of Dist the Reaper — excuse me, Dist the Rose, as he insists on being called — the Camp Plucky Comic Relief of the Six God-Generals. He and Arietta take Luke back to the fon machine, where Dist remarks on even the fonon frequency being the same: "This is a perfect creation." His companion, Sync the Tempest, a short masked man with pale green hair, has a CD-ROM with important data, but he almost instantly loses it when Guy comes dashing in. As they fight, Guy knocks Sync's mask off, and is astonished by what he sees: "...What? ...You?" Of course, The Player doesn't see Sync's face, so we have no idea what Guy just learned. Sync and Dist withdraw.
Luke and the others return to the roof to confront Arietta, the first member of the Quirky Miniboss Squad to actually have a Boss Battle. Afterwards, Jade once again wants to put an end to her, but Ion requests she be taken into custody and tried for her crimes... and Van, arriving late on the scene, is able to make it happen.
As the Katsbert ferry sails to Chesedonia, Luke has a chance to visit with his party members — particularly Guy, who admits that the Luke who returned from the kidnapping was completely different than the one who got kidnapped; and Jade, who asks, "What would you do if you weren't really you?" He also has a talk with Tear, who is confused: Luke, despite causing a hyperresonance, cannot use the Seventh Fonon. She apologizes for making light of Luke's memory loss, having not realized until now just how thorough it was: he mentions not paying attention to his teachers' lectures about the Seventh Fonon because he needed to learn what his parents look like. Luke then waits on the aft deck for Van, who asked to speak to him.
While he is alone there, Luke suffers another Voice Headache, where the voice takes control of his body and begs him to "Show me your power... The same power as mine". The two are interrupted by Van, who applies a Cooldown Hug and gets Luke to focus. Van diagnoses Luke as having been attempting to create a hyperresonance. He explains that Luke is the only person on the planet who can do this by himself (whereas normal Seventh Fonists like Tear have to work in pairs to do it), and that his power is why he's been shut up in the mansion for as long as he can remember. A "hyperresonance" allows the wielder to become a Reality Warper: "It can destroy and reform any matter. ... It would be useful as a weapon." He paints the picture of Luke's future: betrothed to the Heir Apparent, Princess Natalia, to become King Consort, kept a Gilded Cage. He promises Luke that if they succeed at ending the current war, Luke will be hailed as a hero and will escape confinement. It isn't clear which of those two results Luke is more excited about, but they're definitely both appealing.
In Chesedonia, Van points the group at the head of a local merchants' guild named Astor, who has a computer old enough that it still has a disc drive; Astor prints out the contents and puts them in three-ring binders for Guy. Just in time, too: as the party heads to the Kimlascan Consulate, there to board a ship to Baticul, Sync drops by. He pastes some sort of purple energy on Guy's arm and makes off with the CD-ROM. He explains to Dist that the purple energy is a "curse slot": "I can make him my puppet at any time. As for you, make sure you properly dispose of those documents from the fomicry project."
Guy shares the binders with Jade, who recognizes it as isofon research, as well as the fonon frequency of Lorelei. All of this goes straight over Luke's head, so the team explains: Each type of fonon has an "aggregate sentience," a sort of personification of the fonon itself, and the Seventh Fonon's is Lorelei. While the other intelligences have been observed — they are the recurring Tales summons Shadow, Gnome, Sylph, Undine, Efreet and Rem — Lorelei's existence is merely inferred. Meanwhile, every living thing has a unique fonon frequency; "isofons" share the same frequency, and are not naturally occurring; one of them must have been created. Isofons also have an easier time creating hyperresonances with each other, which is why weapons developers are always paying attention to them. And how would one make an exact copy of something? Why, via fomicry, of course! ...Except that, according to Jade, "replicas" always have unique fonon frequencies, meaning isofons can't be— Luke, tired of all this technobabble, cuts the conversation short... as does Chandler's Law, when the Oracle Knights board the ship. Luke's team battle their way abovedeck, where they find Dist waiting for them. Dist mostly wants recognition — particularly from Jade, as They Went To School Together. Dist makes off with the binders — which Jade doesn't particularly care about, as he's already memorized them. Dist also drops off a robot to serve as a boss; you never fight him directly over the course of the game.
At Baticul, Ion and Jade, on behalf of Emperor Peony, request an audience with King Ingobert the Sixth. Luke offers to show everyone around the city — even though he himself has never been to it before. However, when they get to the throne room, they discover that Grand Maestro Mohs has beaten them to it: he's already in there, conferring with His Majesty — or, more accurately, feeding him lies that Malkuth is fortifying. Luke, barging in on the back of his own royal heritage, is able to counter these rumors with his own eye-witness testimony. King Ingobert isn't prepared to just commit to a peace, of course, but he promises to take the letter seriously.
Luke is finally free to return to his mansion. He is home, the place he's been trying to get to this whole time.
Almost immediately, he runs into Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. She is... Well, if we're honest, she's a lot like Luke was when we first started the game: largely self-centered, and dismissive of other people's issues; she starts by criticizing Luke, and then Guy for not consulting her before heading off after Luke (ignoring that Guy, as a servant, can't just waltz in and chat with the heir presumptive) and for dodging away when she steps near him (ignoring that PTSD doesn't go away simply because the princess orders it to). (It's a bit crazy to think that Luke has actually had some Character Development at this point, given that the player may be a mere five or ten hours into the game.) That said, she's also Spoiled Sweet in a way Royal Brat Luke simply is not.
Natalia has the latest news: Master Van is now a wanted criminal in Kimlasca, by orders of King Ingobert, under the suspicion that he orchestrated Luke's kidnapping. Natalia promises to (try to) do something about it... though, as a return favor, she requests Luke make good on his Childhood Marriage Promise. (You know, the one he doesn't remember making. Natalia's dismissive of that too. Suddenly, Luke's Jerkass behavior gets put in a completely different context. Natalia doesn't mean anything negative by it — it's clear she genuinely wants to marry Luke — but she's essentially gaslighting him into doing so.)
Luke decides to take a nap — in his own bed, in his own home. What he hadn't counted on was everyone leaving him: Tear needs to report to Grand Maestro Mohs; Jade and Ion have peace negotiations to attend; where Ion goes, Anise goes; and Guy needs to go do some serious apologizing for haring off after Luke. Luke lies down for his nap, alone. However, on the second day of the month Gnome Decan, after an indeterminate Time Skip — ''Tales of the Abyss' is the only game of the franchise whose calendar has been explained in any detail, so we know it's been about 150 days since Tear "kidnapped" Luke, but the game doesn't specify how much of that time was spent in actual gameplay versus how much was Luke's nap — he's invited by Natalia to come to the castle. Almost immediately he stumbles upon Tear learning from Grand Maestro Mohs that the Seventh Fonstone is in a town called Akzeriuth, and that Luke will probably "also wind up going there" — so something's up.
Duke Fabre, Luke, Tear, Jade, Mohs and Natalia congregate in King Ingobert's throne room. The crown has agreed to the terms, but the letter also contained a request for help: Akzeriuth, a mining town, is being threatened by miasma, which has blocked the road from Malkuth proper. Luke has been assigned as Kimlasca-Lanvaldear's goodwill ambassador. It's also a bribe: the crown has Van in custody, but will release him to aid Luke if Luke takes the position. King Ingobert also feels compelled to send Luke because of something written on a piece of the Sixth Fonstone:
- ND 2000. In Kimlasca shall be born the scion of Lorelei's power. He will be of royal blood with hair of red. He shall be called 'the light of the sacred flame,' and he will lead Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to new prosperity.
ND 2018. The young scion of Lorelei's power shall bring his people to the miner's city. There...
Tear: ...and the rest is missing.
But it's enough to convince King Ingobert and Duke Fabre... not to mention Luke himself, who still has Van's promises of opportunities for heroism ringing in his ears. He agrees to the position, to be accompanied by Guy, Tear, Jade and Natalia herself, and then heads down to see Van. (It also explains why people are so willing to go along with the Score: "Because Destiny Says So" is a lot more palatable when you're mentioned by name.)
Van wastes no time: he asks Luke to join the Oracle Knights. He claims that this is the only way Luke can afford becoming the Laser Guided Tyke Bomb Kimlasca wants him to be. He knows the text on the bits of the Sixth Fonstone King Ingobert doesn't have: "The youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon of Kimlasca." Instead of doing what The Score says, Van tells him, Luke will need to Take a Third Option: he will need to eliminate the miasma itself. And for that he will need to use his hyperresonance powers. Van offers to train him, and also makes him promise to keep this whole thing secret, especially around Kimlascans. (The camera angle very conspicuously shows that Princess Natalia is standing nearby overhearing all of this.) Van explains that he is extending this offer in honor of the younger Luke, the one before the memory loss — a child who had undergone brutal experiments for hyperresonance, ones that Van winced to see. That's why Van kidnapped Luke seven years ago. Luke, understanding now that Van is his Parental Substitute and the only person who's ever truly looked out for him, agrees to the plan.
Van immediately offers to board a decoy ship, drawing the attention of the Oracle Knights, while Luke's team heads overland to Chesedonia and Kaitzur, and from there to Akzeriuth. However, before they can depart, they run into Anise, who has lost Ion; his bed was empty, and he's been seen in the company of people who look like circus performers. These would be the actual Dark Wings, who have turned out to be a Terrible Trio Goldfish Poop Gang that the party interacts with in both Chesedonia and here in Baticul. More importantly, Sync, and Lorelei only knows how many more God-Generals, are waiting outside the city: if Luke just walks out the front gate, they'll know Van's ship is a decoy. So Guy takes them to an Absurdly Spacious Sewer in the form of an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city; it has sewage outflow ducts which should serve as an escape route.
Within the factory, they're immediately ambushed by Princess Natalia. She wants to come along, and her trump card is the fact that she overheard Luke and Van talking. Luke is "persuaded" to accept his sixth and final party member. Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear is essentially a Foil for Tear: instead of throwing slow-moving magic projectiles, which rarely hit and don't do much damage if they do, Natalia is a Mage Marksman and actually has decent physical attack power through her bow, making Death of a Thousand Cuts a reasonable possibility. Additionally, while Tear's healing artes hit the entire party for small amounts, Natalia's give a single target a major infusion of HP. Natalia also brings yet another layer to the Dysfunction Junction: Anise, in particular, sees her as a rival for Luke's affections. While Natalia may be Spoiled Sweet, the emphasis still on "spoiled"; she casts aside her royal status for the sake of party integration, but nonetheless takes the lead and expects others to cater to her. That said, her Break the Haughty moment happens before the dungeon even ends, when the local boss, a very large Blob Monster, jumps down from the ceiling and Tear has to yoink her out of the way.
Outside, Luke spies Ion in the custody of Oracle Knights, including Asch the Bloody. Luke surges into battle, and, in one of the anime Cut Scenes that are part of the franchise's Signature Style, Asch whips out his sword and defends. The two are evenly matched — white against black, lefty versus righty. And everyone in the party — everyone except Jade, who watches grimly — are astonished when Asch finally turns to face the camera... and reveals he has not just Luke's red hair, not just Luke's voice actor, but also Luke's face. Something odd is happening.
Asch and Sync, with Ion in custody, make off in the Tartarus, which heads east towards an oasis between Baticul and Chesedonia. Luke — designated party leader, despite his own annoyance at having to make decisions — gives the command to follow them on foot, especially since this was the direction they were planning to go anyhow. When they arrive at the Oasis, Luke gets one of those voice headaches... but this time it's not that external voice, it's Asch. He (Asch) claims that Ion is being kept in the Zao Ruins.
- Luke: Where are they?
Jade: I'm afraid I don't know. I'd be most grateful if the leader of this mission would find them for us...
Luke: You really like to be a jerk, don't you.
Jade: Not at all. I'm so good-natured and honest, it almost hurts.
The Zao Ruins are just sitting around in the eastern part of the desert; one GameFAQs guide calls them "impossible to miss". It's dark and gloomy, and nobody can see. When Mieu offers to breathe fire perpetually, Luke shoots down the idea — but without the scorn and Amusing Injuries he would normally dispense. The Ruins includes a concentration of Second Fonons, which Mieu can absorb into the Sorcerer's Ring, giving him a new drill attack which can be used to break rocks and solve new puzzles; the physical means of gaining the new power is that a new fonic verse becomes physically engraved on the Sorcerer's Ring. This will be important later.
At the end of the dungeon, Asch supervises Ion as he does... something, with Sync and Largo guarding them. Sync is a Fragile Speedster, not particularly durable but incredibly nimble; Largo, much more of a Stone Wall, swings his giant scythe around him in wide, devastating arcs. It's a Dual Boss, and the hardest fight in the game to this point, probably by a significant margin.
Once both of them are down, Asch rolls his eyes and flies into the fray. Luke takes him on, with the two trading inconclusive swings and even attempting a Cross Counter using identical moves — learned from Master Van, of course. Sync puts an end to it by suggesting a peaceful trade: instead of just collapsing the ruins, leading a case of Rocks Fall Everybody Dies which would prove lethal to heroes and villains alike, the God-Generals surrender Ion so that Everybody Lives. As the Player Party withdraws, Guy looks back at Sync:
- Guy: ...They really are the same.
Natalia: I can't stand being ordered around by filth like him.
Guy: What? Oh... yeah. But you need to deal with it for now, Natalia.
Natalia: I know that. On this journey I'm not traveling as the princess.
Largo (surprised): Natalia...?
Sync: That's Princess Natalia? It must be fate, Largo.
Asch: Are you connected to Natalia somehow?
Largo: ...It was a long time ago. I've forgotten.
Sync: There's no need for the six God-Generals to know each others' pasts. You should be painfully aware of that, Asch. You of all people — the leftover ashes of the "holy flame".
Asch: ...Tch.
Ion explains that the Zao Ruins are another Sephirotnote . To protect them, the church puts fonic seals on them which only a Fon Master can remove; Ion was being compelled to do so here. Nobody has any idea why the God-Generals want the Sephiroth unsealed.
At Chesedonia, Luke gets another voice headache, and the party repairs to the inn. Outside it, Asch uses another voice headache to take control of Luke, forcing him to whip out his sword and advance on Tear.
- Asch (through headache telepathy): Hah hah, look at you. You're connected to me. You ARE me!
As Luke recuperates, the party discuss matters. Jade suggests that Dist managed to place some sort of Mind Control debuff on Luke at Choral Castle, and the party seem to accept this; when Natalia asks whether it might have anything to do with Asch, Jade changes the subject. The next day, the full party — Luke, Tear, Jade, Guy, Anise, Natalia, Mieu and Ion — visit the Malkuth Consulate to try to get their ship to Kaitzur. However, while there, Sync invokes the "curse slot" mind-control debuff he put on Guy, leading the latter to attack Luke. Ion explains that a "curse slot," a Daathic fonic arte, dredges up memories from a person's brain to control them, and can be weakened by distance — getting to Kaitzur will actually be helpful. However, as the party leaves, he stops for an Aside Comment.
- Ion: Only a Fon Master can use Daathic fonic artes... He must be...
Sync (outside the window): He's resisting more than I expected. No matter. They'll be caught up in Akzeriuth anyway.
Is this a bad time to mention that, in the same way Luke and Asch have the same voice actor, Ion and Sync sound very similar?
From Kaitzur, the party heads past the Deo mountains. According to the lady at the Malkuth embassy, Van has actually preceded them, and is currently leading a vanguard through the pass. Luke whines when Ion, ever frail, needs to rest, even pulling the "I'm the ambassador, I'm in charge" card. (The party collectively ignore him.) The boss encounter is with Major Legretta, who proclaims her motivation is "To win freedom and free will for human beings. ... This world is completely controlled by the Score. People read the Score for anything they do. The Score rules their lives. Don't you think that's wrong?" And given that the whole party blithely shrugs when she points out that some people consult the Score to figure out what to eat for dinner, it can be safely said that Villain Has a Point. That said, we're still going to have a boss battle. Legretta is a Fragile Speedster with Guns Akimbo; she is easily stunned, but dishes out appalling amounts of damage.
Afterwards, the revelations fall fast and furious:
- Legretta: Tear! Get away from that reject!
Luke (the only other person in frame): Reject? You talking about me?!
Jade (furious) ...So, it WAS you people who resurrected that forbidden technology!
Ion: Jade, no! There are some things people are better off not knowing!
Jade: Ion... You knew?!
Luke: What? Stop leaving me out of the conversation! What are you talking about?! It's something to do with me, right?!
Jade (ignoring Luke): ...Whose idea was it? Was it Dist's?
Legretta: Are you talking about fomicry? What good would it do you to know? The die has been cast, Necromancer! (escapes via flashbang)
Jade: Over my dead body!
Anise: Colonel... you're actually really angry...
Jade: ...I'm sorry. I lost control. I'm all right now. Let's hurry to Akzeriuth.
Luke (as the party walks past him): Damn it, you're keeping me in the dark on purpose! Tell me what the hell's going on!
Mieu: Master, you mustn't get mad!
Luke: They all jerk me around and then act like I'm not even here! I'm the ambassador, damn it!
Mieu: Master...
Luke: Master Van's the only one... He's the only one who understands!
Akzeriuth is a mining town dug deep into the ground. Natalia, a Politically-Active Princess with Chronic Hero Syndrome, immediately gets to work helping the ailing townsfolk. Meanwhile, an Oracle Knight reports to Fon Master Ion on the location of the Seventh Fonstone, which Tear is here to authentify; she leaves the party, while the rest descend into one of the tunnels where Van is attempting to rescue some trapped miners. However, when they reach the bottom, they can't find Van or his troops anywhere... And Luke gets another Voice Headache Telepathy message from Asch: "Don't go any further. Stop, before it's too late! Listen to me!!"
Luke, ignoring him, meets Van at a very colorful door. It's another Sephiroth seal. Van wants it open, but Ion — Fon Master Ion, who cheerfully agrees to do everything ever asked of him — hesitates. Luke finally cajoles him into complying. Despite Asch's warnings, which are now verging into genuine panic — "Are you trying to destroy Akzeriuth?!" — Luke forges ahead, following Van and Ion into the fontech chamber built around / into / atop the Sephiroth... secure in Van's confidence that he, Luke, is The Chosen One.
Above, Tear reports to Jade: Van's troops aren't elsewhere, they're dead. Oracle Knights, the same ones who captured the Tartarus, killed them. ...And then laid in wait to capture Tear, who was successfully lured away by the rumors of the Seventh Fonstone. That way, Tear explains, Van can protect Tear with claims of plausible deniability after he does... whatever it is he's about to do. Which isn't going to be good... at least according to Asch, who rescued Tear, and is now here trying to stop Van. Tear begins to explain what Van is up to--
Below, Van is having Luke use hyperresonance to inscribe new markings into the Sephiroth Tree. He also makes use of a hypnotic command he implanted in Luke during their Cooldown Hug on the ferry: Using the command, "Foolish Replica Luke, release your power!," he causes Luke to open all his fon slots and cause a hyperresonance. As he does, we flip back to Tear: "Van is planning to destroy Akzeriuth!"
The Sephiroth Tree has been successfully modified, and the chamber begins to crumble. "You've finally proven useful, replica," Van tells Luke, disdain clear in his voice. Asch runs in, too late to stop Van, but is unexpectedly saved by Van: "I can't afford to lose you." He also defends his plan to Tear, whom he calls "Mystearica": "I want you to live... At least long enough for me to see you come to your senses." Tear uses a Fonic Hymn to protect the party as Akzeriuth, the Tartarus and the surrounding countryside plunge downward into whatever hellish underworld the miasma comes from.
The party survives the plunge, but are helpless to aid a kid from Akzeriuth, who is afloat on a door amidst (what Tear describes as) "a bottomless pit of mud and miasma". Natalia and Tear attempt to cast healing spells, but the door wasn't intended to function as a flotation device. The party cannot help him. The boy dies.
Jade commandeers the Tartarus, which is afloat above the mud and will still run. Tear directs them to "Yulia City," which is down here in the "Qliphoth". She explains that the Qliphoth is a second world Beneath the Earth; the surface world, which she calls "the Outer Lands," are held up by Sephiroth Trees that are rooted in the Qliphoth. After the miasma first happened, 2000 years ago, Yulia Jue used the Score to invent a plan to artificially elevate much of the planet's landmasses, resulting in the world map Luke et al are familiar with. Today, the Qliphoth itself is a forgotten memory... unless you're one of the people who live in Yulia City, like Tear.
Of course, the Sephiroth Trees were never meant to be messed with, certainly not with hyperresonance. This is when everyone turns accusing eyes on Luke.
Luke protests that he was Just Following Orders, and besides, he knows nothing because of his amnesia. The Player Party is fairly sympathetic as well, understanding how Luke, sheltered as he is, could have so easily been led astray by his Parental Substitute... But Luke still won't take responsibility for falling for the whole ruse. One by one, the other characters turn their backs on him.
- Jade: I'm returning to the bridge. If I stay here, I'll just be irritated by some ridiculous ranting.
Natalia: Ever since you lost your memory, you're like a completely different person!...
Luke: You all couldn't do anything to stop it either! Don't just blame me!
Ion: You're right. I'm powerless. But still...
Anise: Ion! Don't even bother talking to him. He's not worth it.
Guy: Luke... Don't make me think even less of you...
Tear: I was stupid for starting to think you had some good in you...
Luke is left alone with Mieu — who, since he also visited tragedy to his people, can understand what Luke's going through. This is not of any particular comfort to Luke.
The question of who is ultimately at fault is a complicated one. The simple fact is that Luke has every reason to trust Van, and Van — being the Big Bad — set it up that way on purpose. Expecting Luke, who is basically only seven years old and has spent at most 200 days actually outside his house, to just magically become an Excellent Judge of Character isn't precisely reasonable. Additionally, while others may be better judges of character, they aren't saying it out loud; Luke's accusations after the fight with Legretta — that the other party members are keeping him Locked Out of the Loop — are 100% accurate. (Keep reading to learn just how much it is in fact an understatement.) Now, given Luke's maturity level (or lack thereof), it is also 100% justified that everyone keeps him talks over his head... but that doesn't change the fact that they let their distrust and distaste get away with them. And finally, there is one simple fact: the eight characters of the Player Party have just witnessed a World Sundering. The ones who weren't Shell Shocked Veterans before, well, they definitely are now. It's easy to blame the person who ultimately pulled the trigger — especially when that person was factually tricked into pulling it. The most humbling part of the Darkest Hour, as the other characters abandon Luke, is that not once has a single person ever acted Out of Character. Each of them did what seemed best to them at the time... and the result was that Poor Communication Kills, in a devastatingly literal fashion.
Yulia City is the closest thing Auldrant has to a Crystal Spires and Togas locale. As they head to the mayor's house, Luke lingers behind, uninterested in being yelled at some more... and is accosted by Asch. Asch is, ironically, the only person who does hold himself responsible for (his small part in) the tragedy, acknowledging that he arrived too late to stop it. He continues to call Luke "replica," leading Luke to finally snap out of his self-pitying fugue and ask what the heck it means. Tear asks Asch to desist, but to no avail:
- Asch: Why do you think you and I have the same face? ... I'm a noble born in Baticul. Seven years ago, I was kidnapped by a villain named Van. ... That's right! You're a second-rate copy of me! A mere replica!
You know how we've been mentioning that Luke is only seven years old? This wasn't Metaphorically True. Asch is the original Luke fon Fabre, and the Player Character we've been controlling all game... is his clone. Surprise Tomato!
- Asch: I don't want to acknowledge it either! To think that dreck like you is my replica. To think that trash like you stole my family, my home... everything from me! I'm going to be sick.
After a Hopeless Boss Fight against someone 10 years older and more experienced than him, Luke passes out from the strain (or maybe Asch gives him a Tap on the Head; he does have Luke at swordpoint). When he wakes up, he's a disembodied conscience riding around in Asch's head; Asch shows him his body, in a coma on a bed. Because the two are isofons and have Twin Telepathy, Asch has used the, ha-ha, Isophone, to let Luke ride around in his head. Asch becomes a Guest-Star Party Member. He has basically the same abilities as Luke, but with the addition of some fonic attack artes.
Luke learns that his Player Party — Jade, Guy, Natalia, Ion and Anise — will be taking the Tartarus back up to the Outer Lands, ascending via the Akzeriuth Sephiroth. Guy and Natalia are delighted to be re-united with the "real" Luke... but skeptical too; the boy they knew has changed since becoming the ash of the sacred flame. Guy says straight to Asch's face that he doesn't trust him, and Natalia soon learns that her romantic nature is in no way mirrored by the unsentimental attitude of her betrothed. Luke is left behind; the only people staying with him are Mieu, showing Undying Loyalty to his master... and Tear.
Asch takes the Tartarus to Belkend, the City of Fon Machines; Van used to stop at Machine Lab 1, and Asch is hoping to find some clue as to what Van is up to. There, he encounters Spinoza, one of the tech geezers of Belkend... and one of the conspirators who helped Van kidnap Asch back in the day. He is also, Jade recognizes, the person who broke the ban on using fomicry to create living beings, helping Van create the clone who today is known as Luke. Spinoza, meanwhile, recognizes Dr. Jade Balfour, the father of fomicry, the person who invented it in the first place — and, for that matter, the one who banned the fomicry of living organisms. Spinoza defends himself by claiming he was simply part of the "preservation project" — which he realizes he oughtn't've mentioned when even Asch doesn't know what it is. He refuses to clarify what it is because nobody ever tells anyone anything in this game.
The cloning lab in Belkend is out of "fonimin," a raw material used in fomicry. Asch resolves to head there. However, Guy chooses to return to Yulia City — or, rather, to Aramis Springs, a naturally-occurring way to pass from the Qliphoth to the Outer Lands — and keep an eye on his friend. When Natalia asks "Luke" to stop him, Asch refuses to answer to that name. That said, he does leap in between Natalia and an unfamiliar monster when they enter the cavern. Additionally, while Asch is a stronger combat asset than Luke, he doesn't have Mieu's loyalty; any puzzles requiring the Sorcerer's Ring are simply unsolvable for now. Within the caverns, they find out the nature of the "preservation project": ongoing experiments on large-scale fomicry — or, rather, what passes for "large-scale" now. Even back at the dawn of fomicry, Jade explains, they could theoretically have replicated a small island, so now Van's shooting much higher — planetoid-sized masses. There's also Classified Information, which (Jade says) the Malkuth military should've destroyed, which would allow fomicry recreations of the entire population of the destroyed island kingdom of Hod. Finally, they find a cheagle clone and its original. Jade is surprised to note that the original cheagle's Breath Weapon is weaker than the clone's, as the reverse is typically true; however, he adds, extraction of fomicry data can sometimes weaken the original. Luke, still watching through the Isophone, is audibly distressed to learn that Asch might have been injured through his (Luke's) creation — and relieved when Jade says that, if such weakening had occurred, it would've already made itself known; Asch is fine and is going to stay fine. After the requisite end-of-dungeon boss, Asch announces he will leave the party, preferring to Work Alone.
As they return to the Tartarus, there's an earthquake. Asch believes it's the southern half of the continent of Rugnica — which was, but is no longer, supported by the Akzeriuth Sephiroth — beginning to sag into the Qliphoth. Even worse, since the Six God-Generals have been forcing Ion to unseal the Sephiroth, Van has control of them. If he wanted to simply Colony Drop the Outer Lands back down into the Qliphoth, it would be within his power to do so. Fortunately, that portion of Rugnica is largely unpopulated. Unfortunately, St. Binah — the next to fall — is not. Asch, understanding his next course of action, unceremoniously hangs up the Isophone. Back down in Yulia City, Luke awakens.
Luke finds Tear standing in a flower garden and expresses his wish to go to St. Binah, based on Asch's testimony. Tear points out that Luke is doing it again: blindly believing what other people say, instead of actually thinking for himself. Luke realizes she's right. He resolves to change. He has seen himself to be a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, and realized he needs to start knowing for a change. He begs Tear to hold him accountable, and she agrees. To seal the deal, he borrows one of Tear's throwing knives and gives himself an Important Haircut, symbolically freeing himself of his more negative character traits.
Luke and Tear head off to talk to Mayor Teodoro, use the Aramis Spring, return to the Outer Lands, and save St. Binah.
Act II
Luke introduces himself to Mayor Teodoro, who is also Tear's grandfather, and begins the first of (what turns out to be) many apologies for his role in the fall of Akzeriuth. Mayor Teodoro, if you can believe it, absolves Luke of all guilt: Akzeriuth's destruction is in the Score. It happened Because Destiny Says So. There's a "Closed Score" that only high-ranking members of the Order of Lorelei, like Teodoro himself, can access; and the Order keeps a lot of it to themselves, because people who have learned they're going to die Because Destiny Says So tend to be... unruly. The Order continues to shepherd Audrant down that Score because of The Needs of the Many; supposedly, any variation from the tune Yulia Jue called would be worse. Tear is infuriated: she was told that Teodoro and others tried to prevent the Hod War, which resulted in the island falling into the Qliphoth, much as Akzeriuth did — and with a similar casualty rate. Teodoro admits that this was Lies to Children, not wanting to upset his granddaughter. Van, on the other hand, knew everything. This, according to Tear, must be Van's villain motivation: "He said that a world shackled to the Score is better off destroyed!" Teodoro is convinced Van has no such motivation, but gives Luke and Tear permission to head up and see for themselves.Tear in no way believes in Van; she is certain he wants to avenge Hod... the Doomed Hometown whence both he and Tear came. (He and his mother, who was then pregnant, survived the fall into the Qliphoth.) And not just any Doomed Hometown, but one everyone just shrugged their shoulders about, Because Destiny Says So, and if A Million Is a Statistic then A Million Is Really A Statistic When Destiny Says It Is. Shortly before his most recent assignment, Tear learned that Van was either planning to cause or going to allow some massive catastrophe (cf Akzeriuth, St. Binah, the whole rest of the Outer Lands if the chain reaction is allowed to continue) and resolved to stop him, leading to the assassination attempt that began the game.
While walking through Yulia City, Tear learns from a NPC that people are close to decoding Yulia Jue's third fonic hymn. There are actually a bunch of "Unlock the magic spell" sidequests in this game, most of which we've glossed over. However, this one is plot-relevant: If Tear learns how to sing all seven of Yulia's fonic hymns, she will unlock the "Grand Fonic Hymn," which — in conjunction with something called the "Key of Lorelei" — is said to be able to summon Lorelei. Tear expresses some fear that she won't be able to learn all of them — the seventh in particular has always eluded her — but Luke tells her that the two she already has have been helpful, and that's not nothing. It's the first time Luke has said a compliment to anyone. (Also, Tear can go talk to that NPC a second time and learn the third hymn.)
Luke and Tear, emerging from Aramis Spring, find Guy waiting for him, and is astonished when Luke thanks him for doing so. Guy affirms that, while their friendship began through his servitude to House Fabre, he sees Luke as an equal now — which Luke goes out of his way to affirm, since he is a clone and has no authority over Guy anyhow. Guy also steps in to shoulder some of the blame for Akzeriuth. Luke was, they both admit, a Royal Brat, but Guy helped him become so. When Luke The Clone was first returned to the House Fabre manse, he (Luke The Clone) was a total Blank Slate — had to re-learn how to walk and everything. The people around him, Guy included, very clearly had an opportunity to turn that Blank Slate into something besides a Royal Brat... and didn't take it.
As they emerge from the spring, they run into Jade. He came to speak to Guy. The political situation in the Outer Lands has become grim: all Kimlasca saw was the city of Akzeriuth just get fucking swallowed by the earth, while Princess Natalia was in it. So Ion took Natalia with him to Daath to issue a decree that everything's fine, war is not the right idea... only to get captured by Mohs upon arrival. Jade needs to do something about it to avert all-out war. He, Guy and Tear — Luke is to a certain extent demoted to Tagalong Kid, and accepts this as part of his fate as The Atoner, not to mention a new dose of Heroic Self-Deprecation concerning his (perceived) lack of right to exist — make plans to head to Daath, where Anise is already snooping around.
In the city, as they search, Luke asks Tear for help learning to control his hyperresonance; as the only Seventh Fonist (currently) in the partynote , she is the only one who can. As she does, she has a Flashback to Major Legretta teaching her the same thing. She's still a trainee at this point, but Van is already priming her (Tear) to replace Legretta as his Number Two — with Legretta's knowledge and consent, it should be added. We'll get into more detail as it becomes more clear, but it should be pointed out that every member of the Six God-Generals is also an Evil Counterpart and Foil to each of the six Player Party characters: For instance, for Tear, Legretta is The Mentor currently undergoing a Broken Pedestal. (The parallels between Luke and Asch are, hopefully, obvious.)
Anise isn't particularly pleased to see Luke, but she acknowledges that there are more important things going on. She confirms that Ion and Natalia are under the Cathedral of Daath, where the Order of Lorelei has its headquarters. Jade suggests Tear give a report on the Seventh Fonstone — the thing that was supposedly at Akzeriuth — with Luke, Guy and Jade as her witnesses.
Within the Cathedral, Anise runs into her mother, Pamela, a devout member of the faith... who apparently is giving all her money away to the church. Likewise, her father, Oliver, is revealed to be a sweet-natured Cloud Cuckoolander who falls for any scam that passes by him. Luke is astonished when Oliver reveals he paid 10,000 Gald — per person — for a vacation: you can't get much of a vacation for that sum of money. (Suddenly, Anise's Gold Digger and Gold Fever tendencies have an entirely new context.) They also encounter Mohs and Legretta, who — believing themselves unobserved — confirm that Mohs is in fact conspiring to cause a war between Kimlasca and Malkuth, as bidden by the Score. Mohs heads to Baticul to stoke the fires further.
Luke breaks Ion and Natalia out and the group successfully leaves the Cathedral. Luke wants to fall back on Baticul, but Mohs will be there already. Ion instead suggests heading to Grand Chokmah to get the ear of Emperor Peony. To that end, Jade leads the group to the Daath harbor, where Asch left the Tartarus. Of course, if Jade — who has probably been reported as KIA at Akzeriuth — shows up in a captured landship, the Malkuth military is apt to open fire out of sheer paranoia; so the group resolves to sail to a different port and enter the capitol on foot.
Of course, the Tartarus breaks down en route. (The last time this happened and Mieu shrieked about not being able to swim, Luke replied, "Shut up and drown;" this time, he reassures the Team Pet, "Don't worry. We're not going to sink.") Jade and Guy, who turns out to be something of a fontech geek, manage to patch the engine, but only enough to get them to Keterburg, the nearest port. There, Jade visits the governor and requests repairs to the Tartarus.
The governor, Nephry Osborne, is pleased to see her brother Jade still alive (cf KIA at Akzeriuth). She promises to conduct the repairs and get them on their way to Grand Chokmah: Emperor Peony, who grew up here in Keterburg with Jade and Nephry, still believes his best friend survived, and would undoubtedly like confirmation of his belief. She books them a room at the inn and offers them the hospitality of the city (Keterburg is a tourist town)... and then asks Luke to drop by for a chat, alone.
It's not like that: Nephry is married. Her intention is to Info Dump some of Jade's Dark and Troubled Past. Since Luke himself is a replica, she wants to tell him how Jade invented fomicry: Nephry had broken her favorite doll, and Jade figured out how to make a new one. He was nine years old. In addition to being a Child Prodigy, he also showed one of the classic hallmarks of The Sociopath: childhood animal cruelty. All this changed when The Mentor, Professor Nebilim, dropped by; he admired her and attempted to change his ways. He also tried to learn to use the Seventh Fonon, as she could; this resulted in some sort of disaster and Prof. Nebilim meeting her Mentor Occupational Hazard. Well, Jade figured, if fomicry can replicate a doll, why not a person? Unfortunately, the result was an Empty Shell. But by now his talents had come to the attention of the famous Curtiss military clan, and they adopted him. Emperor Peony, apparently, was then instrumental in convincing him to abandon his quest to replicate living beings. That said, Nephry wants Luke to keep his eyes open and see if Jade still has that faded old dream tucked away for safekeeping.
Jade, who is waiting when Luke returns to the hotel, just straight-up tells him, in his blunt way, that he's abandoned the goal, and points out that Luke should understand both sides of it: while he, like Luke, wants to beg Professor Nebilim for forgiveness, a replica of Professor Nebilim, like Luke, would not remember how it had been wronged and could not grant that forgiveness. He asks Luke to keep this matter a secret between them, and Luke promises to do so.
By now, the player is probably Lv.30 or so. This unlocks "Mystic Artes," the Limit Break system of the game. Mystic Artes start with the "Overlimit" power-up, which is unlocked at Lv.15. Both systems work differently from game to game, but in Auldrant the "Overlimit" bar just fills up as the character both gives and takes damage, similar to Final Fantasy Limit Breaks. A full bar can be expended to kick in Overlimit mode, which increases their armor and prevents stuns until the power-up times out. If a character is in Overlimit, and uses one of their more powerful "arcane" artes or a Field Of Fonons Combination Attack, and holds down the Attack button while the arte fires, they will automatically chain into their most powerful attacks. The Player does not have to do anything to unlock specific Mystic Artes; each character just knows theirs. However, there's also no way to get new ones outside of a New Game Plus, in which each character unlocks a second one.
Theor Forest serves as a checkpoint outside Grand Chokmah. The Malkuth soldiers allow Jade to proceed to the capitol and get security clearance for the rest of the party, but everyone else has to wait. While they do, they hear screams and see mysterious figures darting through the trees. It's Largo and Sync. In a cutscene-only confrontation, Luke et al corner the two God-Generals, only for Sync to activate the curse slot and cause Guy to start rampaging at Luke. Fortunately, Tear espies his hiding spot, and Natalia puts an arrow in his shoulder. (Natalia really is the MVP of this cutscene, not only holding Largo at bay but handling Sync as well. Largo is impressed — nay, positively delighted — with her performance.) The two withdraw while Malkuth soldiers run up and, confused by the circumstances, arrest the Player Party. Luke orders his team to comply.
Inside the capitol, Luke's party are met by Brigadier General Frings. He thanks them for (their attempt at) preventing the murder of Malkuth soldiers, but insists they remain in custody for the moment. Luke has other priorities, since the curse slot is still on Guy. Ion requests a room where Guy can rest and he can untangle the curse slot; as a Fon Master, he's the only one who can. He then tells Luke the truth: a curse slot isn't Mind Control, it acts more like alcohol. "A curse slot stirs up memories and paralyzes rational thought. Guy wouldn't have attacked you if he didn't already have a strong desire to kill you." He and Anise head off to use some Dispel Magic on the curse slot, and Luke is shaken by this new dimension of his best friend. It's Tear who provides the context: she reminds Luke that, as he has recently learned, he can sometimes make mistakes, and that it's completely reasonable he might have done something over the past 17 years to make Guy angry. The Guy who once wanted to kill Luke has since become the Guy who, not that many paragraphs ago, was the first to leave Asch and return to Luke, and Luke needs to give that Guy the benefit of the doubt. Luke points out that Tear gives Tough Love, but also thanks her for it.
After collecting Jade, who can be found at the bar, and Natalia, who is on the docks, Luke talks to Gen. Frings and heads in to see His Imperial Majesty. Emperor Peony, as Jade's agemate and best friend, is — perhaps unsurprisingly — disarmingly informal... and the only person who can actually embarrass the colonel. When the topic of St. Binah comes up, Emperor Peony is perfectly amenable to a mission of mercy, as the city is empirically sinking... but his council isn't, as Kimlasca has issued a Strongly Worded Letter insisting Malkuth blew up Akzeriuth themselves in order to take out Crown Princess Natalia and Spare to the Throne Luke fon Fabre. Meanwhile, the council are now wondering if Kimlasca didn't do it as a False Flag Operation and pretense for war... and, thus, are hesitant to send their own forces into the exact same situation at St. Binah. Luke and Natalia immediately volunteer to handle the evacuation themselves — Natalia as Royals Who Actually Do Something, Luke as The Atoner — which Peony and his council find acceptable.
- Emperor Peony the IX: Thanks, man. I owe you one.
Finally, Luke returns to the inn to pick up the remainder of the party, where Ion has succeeded at Cleansing the curse slot. Guy excuses Luke entirely, explaining that his hatred of Luke is actually incidental. He explains this by giving his own Dark and Troubled Past: he too is from Hod, and on his fifth birthday, Kimlasca began the war against Malkuth by sending Duke Fabre to Guy's house to kill everyone. Duke Fabre was sent there specifically because Guy Cecil — or, to use his birth name, Gailardia Galan Gardios — was of Hod's royal family; if Hod has a Government in Exile today, Guy is that government in its totality and entirety.note He admits that he entered the service of House Fabre in order to enact a Roaring Rampage of Revenge; as Duke Fabre slew Guy's family, Guy intended to slay Duke Fabre's, which of course includes Luke. He doesn't say straight out that he's abandoned that quest, but he does offer to part company with Luke if the latter feels uncomfortable. Luke decides he'd rather not give up on his best friend.
At St. Binah, Jade and Luke consult with McGovern Senior and Junior, and deliver Emperor Peony's orders. The McGoverns are to take their troops to join with a larger Malkuth army which is keeping a Kimlascan force from invading, while Jade's troops — where did he get them? Maybe he just means the Player Party — escort the civilians to Engeve. Of course, that master of bad timing, Dist the Reaper, drops in. While Jade has given up on reviving Prof. Nebilim, Dist — who also grew up in Keterburg with Jade, Nephry and Crown Prince Peony — is still fixated on the idea. He drops another robot for a Boss Battle... and by the time it's defeated, St. Binah is starting to splinter, with both the McGoverns and a number of civilians trapped on the other side. Guy suggests that this would be a perfect time to go obtain the game's Global Airship, as it would allow them to pick up the stranded people; it's in the Kimlascan town of Sheridan, a city that provides a counterpart to Malkuth's Belkend. Tear provides a handwave that they can expect the Outer Lands, including the bits that the stranded citizens are standing on, to stay up for several days. The party heads back to the Tartarus, with which to make for Sheridan (without bothering to tell the McGoverns what their plan is).
Since we're playing a video game and we need Padding, Luke learns from the scientists at Sheridan that their prototype, the Albiore, went down during a test flight and needs someone to get spare parts to them. It's an atypical dungeon: it's on the World Map, and the World Map is poorly optimized, resulting in like 12 FPS on the original PlayStation 2 release. It's also home to researchers Iemon, Aston and Tamara, who call themselves Class M, in contrast to Spinoza's "Class I" over in Belkend. Both groups are trios of crotchety older people, if admitted fontech geniuses, and the rivalry between them will continue to be a plot element going forward. Class M then run interference with suspicious Kimlascan soldiers, who (correctly) noticed a Malkuth colonel running around town, while pilot Noelle takes the party to St. Binah and completes the evacuation. The entire St. Binah region falls into the Qliphoth, kicking up a massive tidal wave of mud down below... but not a single soul is lost.
That said, the landmass formerly known as St. Binah is not going to stay afloat in the Qliphoth — at least, not if Hod is any indication; it took about a month to sink, but sink it did. Luke, at wit's end, suggests reconfiguring the Sephiroth to prevent this; Tear and Jade suggest they consult with Mayor Teodoro, whose faith in the Score — a Score which mentioned absolutely nothing about a second World-Wrecking Wave taking out St. Binah — should now be shaken. Jade also takes Luke to task for his childishness in believing he has to convince everyone to do something. The Player now has to figure out how to fly the Albiore to Yulia City, as they are put in command of the ship.
- Field Marshal McGovern: Luke, don't be discouraged. ... Jade rarely scolds people. What he says earlier shows he's that taken a liking to you.
Jade: Field Marshal! Don't put words in my mouth!
Field Marshal McGovern: Old folks don't have time to bother scolding people we don't like. Jade is no different.
Jade: Honestly, of all the things to say. I'm going on ahead. (he DOES, followed by the other party members)
Luke: Tear... Umm... Thanks. ... You've scolded me from the very beginning.
Tear (turning away from the camera) Oh... That was just... I mean...
Inside the Sephiroth chamber, the party discover that Van has placed a seal on it to render the Sephiroth unable to function. Luke, who has been training in the controlled use of hyperresonance, manages to erase just that seal, keeping St. Binah afloat... aground. He thanks — and hugs — Tear, and then thanks the rest of the party as well, praising them for their contributions. However, Tear is unexpectedly weakened by the exertion of, uh, just standing there. Even worse, Anise reads the control panel and notices that more of the Outer Lands are teetering on the brink of collapse.
As the Albiore ascends to the Outer Lands, we are treated to an anime cut scene of Kimlasca, intending to avenge the death of Princess Natalia, waging war on Malkuth. ...On the Rugnica Plains. ...Which is next to fall. The war, and the battle on the plains, is in the Score, and Tear hypothesizes that this was Van's plan all along.
Luke proposes, Let's Split Up, Gang!. Natalia resolves to go to Kaitzur, where the bulk of Kimlasca's military will be stationed, and order a cease-fire; Jade heads to Engeve, which is both strategically critical and utterly defenseless (and in danger of falling into the Qliphoth, but the town's denizens currently run a high risk of becoming too dead to care). It doesn't really matter who Luke chooses to go with, and who he chooses to take with him, as you play out both scenes no matter what.
- At Engeve, Noelle picks up the elderly and the children in the Albiore, while Jade has to run an unconventional Escort Mission to take the remaining population to Chesedonia on foot. It's a minigame where Jade has to dodge the Kimlascan Knight mobs on the world map; each time they catch him, one Engeve citizen is killed in the engagement. Jade can also get some prizes after the complete run, but loses one for each Kimlascan Knight he is unable to avoid. The entire run takes four days, with pre-determined Cut Scenes after a specific distance in which various citizens drop by to chat.
- In Kaitzur, Natalia runs into General Cecille, who lacks the authority to obey Natalia's commands; Lt. General Almandine has the overall command, and is headed to Chesedonia. Natalia resolves to follow him. She now has to do the same "Dodge the Malkuth Soldiers" minigame. However, her nighttime visitors are not Malkuth citizens: it's General Aslan Frings of the Malkuth military, who wants Natalia to retreat so that he isn't forced to attack her. On the second night, it's Jozette Cecille, who has basically the same warning. On the third night it's both of them, but Natalia is able to talk them down: Frings has managed to get permission to allow Natalia's party and only Natalia's party through, and therefore needs Cecille to call off the platoon she has assigned to Natalia for security; as collateral, he offers his own life. That leaves Natalia free of Malkuth attacks... but not Oracle Knights. They still count against Natalia's prize total.
The party regroups in Chesedonia and heads off to find Lt. Gen Almandine, who is in conference with Grand Maestro Mohs. Natalia and Luke seem on the verge of convincing Count Almandine to stand down when Mohs butts in, denouncing Natalia and claiming she has no right to issues orders: She's not Natalia, she's a Replacement Goldfish brought in for the real princess. A woman of royal blood would be a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead... the same way Luke is. Natalia is blonde and gray-eyed. While Natalia has her own Tomato in the Mirror moment, Ion decides to return to Daath, feeling he can do better work from there. He formally dismisses Anise from his Praetorian Guard so that she can stay with Luke and keep him safe.
The party speaks to Astor, who reports that Chesedonia is also showing the telltale sagging that heralds an unintended visit to the Qliphoth; Van has already been to the Zao Ruins and switched the Sephiroth Tree from "HI" to "OFF". Per Teodoro, the party still need the Key of Lorelei to turn it back to "HI"... but Jade theorizes that they can turn it to "LO" and lower Chesedonia intentionally, like an elevator. Asch then asks that they drop by the Desert Oasis for a chat, where he reveals that the passage rings are networked. If Luke can figure out how to set the Zao Ruins passage ring to "LO", he should be able to do the same thing to the Shurrey Hill passage ring remotely and safely lower the Rugnica Plains. He then heads out to find out what town Van plans to sink next. Meanwhile, Luke & Co spelunk the Zao Ruins Sephiroth dungeon and successfully use hyperresonance to hack both it and the Shurrey Hill passage rings. Chesedonia, Engeve, Kaitzur and the Rugnica Plains perform a safe, controlled descent into the Qliphoth. The party head back to Chesedonia to rendezvous with the Albiore and Noelle... and maybe get a nap for Tear, who collapsed from her whatever-is-ailing-her-itis.
However, once they get back, Jade asks to take the Albiore out. Readouts on the Zao Ruins passage ring indicated that the Sephiroth were failing; they've been stressed to maximum tolerances trying to keep the Outer Lands up despite someone (who shall go unnamed but whose initials happen to be Dorian General Van Grants) deliberately sabotaging them. Luke's party needs to stabilize the Sephiroth trees. The party resolves to head to Daath and pick up Ion, who can get into whatever secret records Yulia City may have on the subject.
Before this, Luke can visit Engeve, which is down in the Qliphoth. General Frings has control over the area, and General Cecille has surrendered to him — after she and other Kimlascan soldiers almost fell into a fissure during the descent, and Frings rescued her. The chemistry between them is obvious and palpable (to everyone but Natalia and Tear, who are Oblivious to Love in their own ways). It takes a fair bit of running around, but the result is an official truce between General Count Almandine, who is charge of the Kimlascan forces down in the Qliphoth, and General Frings, his counterpart on the Malkuth side, as well as a prisoner exchange. ...But Jozette sends Aslan the formal gift of a dagger — a courtship ritual which means ghosting. Aslan ignores this, sending Luke's party back with a letter; Jozette, reading it, agrees to meet him in Chesedonia. There, Frings proposes, insisting she keep the ring even if Cecille declines (which she does) as a symbol of his eternal patience. Cecille, confronted privately, finally admits she entered the Kimlascan military to Clear My Name: House Cecille was demoted from the nobility after her aunt Eugenie married someone from Malkuth. She cannot do the same thing... no matter how much she wants to. Luke, a tad frustrated at having run back and forth across the continent several times in service of this Side Quest, gives it up... for now.
Luke heads to Daath, there to find Ion. Instead, the party has to hide in a closet while Mohs consults with Dist. Dist wants Prof. Nebilim's replica data in exchange for re-starting the war. He also gets Mohs to mention that Ion is in the library. Ion, when the party catches him, explains that nobody had ever told him the "Closed Score" existed, and he wanted to take a look at it himself. Ion takes the team over to read the Score directly, despite Anise's concerns that a reading of the Score is Cast from Hit Points. Ion reads:
- ND 2000: In Kimlasca shall be born the scion of Lorelei's power. He will be of royal blood with hair of red. He shall be called 'the light of the sacred flame,' and he shall lead Kimlasca-Lanvaldear to new prosperity.
ND 2002: The one who would seize glory shall destroy the island of his birth, a land named Hod. War shall persist between Kimlasca and Malkuth for a full cycle of the seasons.
ND 2018: The young scion of Lorelei shall bring his people to the miner's city. There, the youth will turn power to calamity and be as a weapon of Kimlasca, destroying himself and the city. Thereafter, the land of Rugnica will be enveloped in war, and Malkuth shall lose territory. Kimlasca-Lanvaldear shall thrive, and this shall lead to unprecedented prosperity.
Ion: ...That's all the Sixth Fonstone says about the collapse.
(It should be noted that, even though this exact Score has been read three times so far, the wording is always different. It's unknown if this is a Doylist error where the localizers forgot to proofread, or a Watsonian artifact of different characters interpreting the Fonstones in slightly different ways. Either explanation works.)
The characters pore over the deviations between the Score and reality. In addition to there being no mention of everything falling into the Qliphoth — which, Luke correctly points out, might just be written on the Seventh Fonstone instead — Luke and/or Asch was supposed to die when Luke and/or Asch destroyed Akzeriuth, something that has empirically failed to happen. For that matter, Luke's very existence is non-canon; fomicry and replicas are just not mentioned in the Score. Everyone's musings are cut short by Chandler's Law in the form of Oracle Knight security, and the party retreats to the Albiore (sans Ion), from there to head to Baticul and try to get King Ingobert to end the war. Only Natalia shows trepidation, since she still doesn't know if Mohs was telling the truth about her being a Replacement Goldfish.
Of course, Mohs and Dist are lying in wait for them... and Dist has taken Noelle captive. They take Luke's party to Baticul to re-start the war, with the intention of executing Luke and getting the Score back on track. Luke, to the surprise of the party members, is okay with his death: if his existence is what threw the Score Off the Rails, he's ready to take one for The Needs of the Many. Tear points out that, as the only one not bound by the Score, Luke can Screw Destiny, and shows unseemly dismay at the thought of Luke's death.
After a quick jailbreak, Natalia resolves to go confront King Ingobert and learn the truth about her parentage. Ingobert is being attended by not just Mohs and Dist, but Largo the Black Lion and a woman who has never been seen before. However, she turns out to be critical to the proceedings: she can attest that the real Natalia was stillborn, and that Meryl, daughter of Sylvia, one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting who happened to be pregnant at the same time, was switched in. She's also Sylvia's mother (and therefore Meryl's grandmother). Mohs declares that "Natalia" learned this a while ago, and aided in the destruction of Akzeriuth to get revenge on the world. Ingobert, who apparently listens to Mohs' promises about the Score, orders both "Natalia" and "Luke" executed, and Dist advances... though Largo, who has turned away from the camera during the entire wretched recitation, needs to be goaded into fighting. Things are even worse when Asch arrives to flank the Player Party... or, rather, to save them, since he didn't help with the jailbreak for nothing. Luke leads the retreat through Baticul on foot — past Kimlascan knights trying to capture them; past the knights of House Fabre, leading the defense on orders of a Luke who was wearing a black coat and had long hair, past the citizens of Baticul itself, who blockade the Kimlascan forces to make it clear where their loyalty lies:
- Goldberg: Stop! That heinous criminal usurped the Princess' name. Hand her over at once.
Natalia: It's true! I am not of royal blood! I'm an imposter. Do not endanger yourselves for me. Please, run!
Citizen: We don't give a damn whether you're of royal blood or not!
Citizen: You're the one who opened the hospital for us.
Citizen: You're the one who hired us to work on the port after we lost our jobs.
Goldberg: Argh, enough! Out of the way!
(he SWINGS his sword. At civilians.)
Asch (coming out of nowhere when we need him, like he always does): You wretch! Protecting the people of Kimlasca is your job as a soldier! (to the party'') Leave this to us. Now, go, Natalia!
Natalia: Asch!
Asch: ...I see you kept your promise.
Natalia: Asch — "Luke" — you remember!
Asch: Go! We can't change this country together if you're always moping around!
Luke's team arrive in Belkend, where they decide to talk to Spinoza and the rest of Class I. If Van's replicas — like Luke's — are a Spanner in the Works of the Score, it would be nice to know why Van wants them. They are aided in this when Oracle Knights see "Commander Asch" approaching and escort him to see Commandant Grants. Van admits that he is trying to derail the Score: "If people continue to rely on that garbage, mankind will go extinct." Van has determined that Lorelei does in fact exist, and allows humankind to read the Score. Therefore, Van wants to destroy Lorelei once and for all. While humankind being pushed to the brink of extinction by the collapse of the Outer Lands is certainly an obstacle, Van plans to just Kill and Replace everyone with replicas. He asks Guy if he wants to join him, as his family served House Gardios for generations, and he and Guy originally swore a pact of revenge. Whether Guy would agree is rendered moot when Asch — the real one — storms in. While Luke's side has the numbers advantage, Legretta and Van are much higher leveled, and both parties agree to choose mutual retreat over mutual destruction.
Asch meets them at the inn, where Noelle awaits, having been sprung by some combination of Asch and Ion. However, she reports that technicians at Daath — which were part of the multinational alliance that resulted in the Albiore in the first place — removed the ship's flightstone, reducing it to a boat for the time being. Asch also has an old book for Jade — a text from the Dawn Age, which the Order banned and gathered up the copies of. Ion believes it will help the party lower the Outer Lands safely. Jade, having perused it overnight, discovers that the creation of the "Planet Storm" — an artificial fuel distribution system which sends memory particles out of the core from the first Sephiroth, the "Radiation Gate," and return through the second, the "Absorption Gate" — has caused the planet's core to vibrate violently, liquefying the Qliphoth and putting an end to any hope of keeping the Outer Lands stable. Merely shutting down the Planet Storm isn't an option: it's what keeps the passage rings running. As such, Luke's team need to figure out how to stop the vibration, and he'll need the help of both Class I and Class M. Asch points out that getting Class I's help will be difficult, since all of them report to "Van and Father" — leaving in a huff when everyone teases him about acknowledging his lineage. Hencken and Cathy, the other two members of Class I, take some persuading... by which we mean, all Guy has to do is say that, oh dear, they'll just have to talk to Class M, won't they; at which point the rivalry kicks in and Hencken and Cathy are onboard. The two immediately go to suborn Belkend's governor. (This is also the start of a Running Gag where Jade makes Guy give an Info Dump on How We Got Here, which is thankfully hidden behind a cut.) While Cathy and Hencken work on a measuring device that will document the core's vibrations, Asch heads after Spinoza, who he caught eavesdropping, and Luke heads back to Daath: they need a Sephiroth Tree that's still functioning, which Ion will have the location of and can unseal it.
(If you stay at the inn one more night, Guy will take off on an errand. Luke can choose to follow him. If Luke does, he encounters Guy attempting to use the weight of his royal heritage to dissuade Van from his plan. Van refuses and renounces his service to House Gailardia.)
Luke's party ask Pamela and Oliver Tatlin for the location of the Six God-Generals and learn that all are abroad on business. They speak to Ion, who rejoins the party: the only Sephiroth he's aware of is at Tataroo Valley. Asch makes an Isophone call to say that he caught Spinoza, but the latter was spirited away by the God-Generals and spilled everything he knew to Van. Given that the God-Generals freaked out, despite the fact that Spinoza barely knew anything, they must be really keen to keep the core liquefied. As a precaution, Asch sent Hencken and Cathy to safety with Class M and intends to go learn what he can about Van's plans. Unfortunately, Pamela detains them at the entrance to the city, explaining that she let Arietta know Anise was looking for him. Arietta attacks, and Pamela has to pull a Diving Save when one of her ligers tries to breathe lightning on Ion. Natalia heals Pamela, who is at peace with her choice: "If I was able to protect you, then I have no regrets."
Unbeknownst to the party, this line unlocks a straight-up Flashback in Guy's head. After Pamela has been tended to, he reveals that he's recalled the death of his family: when Duke Fabre invaded, his sister and the remaining maids formed a human wall around him, and were slaughtered to the last. Guy woke up Buried in a Pile of Corpses, and this gave rise to his gynophobia — a gynophobia he himself feels is disrespectful: "They gave their lives to protect me, and I just remember them as 'scary'..." As a testament to the team starting to become True Companions, Luke points out that Guy was only 5, and the three women on the team apologize immediately for how they mocked his troubles.
Jade picks up the frequency counter device in Sheridan, and the team head for Tataroo Valley — the Noob Cave where Luke and Tear first landed months ago. Luke doesn't remember seeing anything like a Sephiroth tree around here (Anise and Natalia needle him that he must've been distracted by Tear, with Tear annoyed at the Mistaken for Romance aspects); the reason for this is because it's hidden behind a giant rock which needs Mieu's drill attack to destroy. Within the Sephiroth dungeon is also the final unlock for Mieu's Sorcerer's Ring: "Mieu Wings," which allows him to lift Luke into the air. It's purely VTOL, with no lateral movement abilities to speak of, but it allows the party to hit buttons on the ceiling — which, for some reason, there start to be a lot of.
As they head for the Tree, Guy gets a bit of Character Development when an earthquake causes Anise to almost fall off a ledge, and he helps Tear pull her back up — a far cry from the man who, just the last time we were in Sheridan, was dodging out of the way of women on the street. Tear's Soap Opera Disease also gets an explanation when a "uniceros" (an alicorn), which is normally docile, attacks the team; Mieu, who speaks Monster, explains that it reacted adversely to the miasma Tear carries around inside her body. How and why this is true of Tear, no one has any clue. Finally, the team reaches the passage ring. Jade has Luke program every passage ring to activate when triggered by the Radiation Gate, allowing them to simply lower the entire Outer Lands as a whole.
Now that we've almost figured out how to save the Outer Lands, it's time to end this war. Natalia makes an impassioned plea to King Ingobert, reminding him that she has been raised as his daughter for 17 years even if she is not of his blood, and that it's time for Royals Who Actually Do Something — the kind of royalty he taught her to be. Ingobert agrees, and gives his blessing to his plan — and his erstwhile daughter. Pleased at their victory, the team hurry to Malkuth to get alignment from Emperor Peony... before Mohs, who was present at the Kimlascan court, can get back to Daath and interfere.
Over in Grand Chokmah, Natalia presents most humble and polite requests to Malkuth to forgive the war of aggression — which Peony declines, pointing out that she shouldn't start negotiations by putting herself in a submissive position. ("And shame on you for not stopping her, Jade.") Jade suggests a neutral ground for negotiations; Ion rejects the idea of Daath, since Mohs is there, and instead Luke nominates Yulia City. Unfortunately, to get Peony and/or Ingobert there, they will need the Albiore flying again, and Dist has the Flightstone. Fortunately, Dist is apparently spoiling for a fight; he sends a letter to tell "the Jade gang" that he has the Flightstone and is waiting for them at a place he and Jade knows. "It's not in Daath. Most definitely not!"
- Luke (who, to reiterate, is seven years old): He should've just said it's in Daath. What an idiot!
(Natalia: Well! Since when did we become the "Jade gang"?)
In Yulia City, both Emperor Peony and King Ingobert sign the peace treaty, and all seems well... until Guy steps up to demand if King Ingobert will follow his word last time, the way he didn't after Hod. When King Ingobert uses the "Because The Score Says So" defense, Guy points out that this didn't stop him (Ingobert) from murdering Kimlascans at Hod — such as Guy's mother, Eugenie Cecille, who was given to House Gardios in Altar Diplomacy. To everyone's surprise, Duke Fabre stands up and offers his life in Ingobert's place, admitting he slew Countess Gardios. Then Emperor Peony stands up and also claims responsibility for the destruction of Hod. His father, who was emperor before him, saw the Kimlascan army concentrated in one place... as well as an opportunity for Hod to "volunteer" for a Taking You with Me. Jade, who was partially involved, relates that a young test subject — only 11 — was hooked up to a machine that caused an artificial hyperresonance, destroying the Sephiroth Tree beneath Hod. What precisely happened to the Kimlascan army is not related, since the war empirically carried on for another year and Duke Fabre, the general of said army, empirically survived; but we know what happened to Hod. The boy was the scion of a house sworn to House Guardios, a boy named Vandesdelca Musto Fende... The boy known today as Van Grants. Guy is smart enough to notice that his revenge, which would involve killing almost everyone in the room, would make the situation go From Bad to Worse; he puts away his sword and allows diplomacy to continue.
The next morning, Teodoro sends Luke to Sheridan. Kimlasca and Malkuth have signed the treaty, ended the war and agreed to be lowered into the Qliphoth; Teodoro has sent engineers to Belkend to begin contemplating a miasma solution; now Luke needs to still the vibrations of the core. First, though, we need to wrap up the Side Quest between Aslan Frings and Jozette Cecille. Guy introduces himself as her cousin, and Luke suggests a Generation Xerox Altar Diplomacy. With the whole world urging her to follow her heart, Cecille agrees, and accepts Frings' ring.
In Sheridan, Class IM, in cooperation, have upgraded the Tartarus to provide counter-oscillations; the Jade Gang will sail it to the hole formerly known as Akzeriuth and descend not only to the Qliphoth but past it, into the core, and then return via the Albiore. Unfortunately, counting travel time, they'll only have 10 hours, and the Albiore will be bound to the Tartarus for the entire operation. The game is hitting you over the head: this is the Point of No Return.
As Luke, having prepared for the mission and officially begun it, heads to the port, Major Legretta catches them in a cordon of Oracle Knights. Jade can't use magic because there are too many civilians without friend-or-foe markings... so the civilians, including Iemon and Tamara, throw themselves into the fray to Human Shield against the mooks. Of course, the civilians are unarmed. Legretta orders them slaughtered. The same thing happens at the port as Van arrives; Spinoza watches in horror as Cathy and Hencken are killed. Nonetheless, the Jade Gang make it to the Tartarus, and the ship begins its descent. All goes well until it's time to use the Albiore as an Escape Pod: Sync has snuck on board and effected sabotage. During the Boss Battle, his mask is knocked off, confirming what you might have suspected already: Sync is also a replica.
- Guy: ...Wait! What do you mean, "also"!?
Ion: ...I'm Fon Master Ion's seventh replica — the final one.
He goes on to explain that the original, who was guarded by Arietta, was sick, and Mohs and Van, unable to find a successor, simply cloned more copies. Ion — the member of the Player Party — was the closest to the original; Sync is one of the lesser copies, existing solely to be used. Despite Ion's offer of friendship, Sync opts to cast himself off the deck of the Tartarus and into the core. Luke then gets another Isophone call, this time from the original voice, the one from the beginning of the game:
- Voice: Heed my words! You who are the same as I, can you hear my voice?
Luke: Asch...? No... This voice is...
Tear: Luke? Are you all right? I'll try healing you.
Voice: Set me free from the prison of this eternal cycle... (about Tear) A descendent of Yulia...! I shall borrow your power!
(Tear is HOISTED INTO THE AIR, floating, her eyes closed)
"Tear": Luke, my isofon. I can finally speak to you.
Luke: Tear? No... You're not Tear...
"Tear": Your kind knows me as Lorelei.
- Lorelei Through Tear: Right now, something enormous is absorbing my power. It is shaking the core and causing the Sephiroth to go out of control. Your actions have quieted the core and stabilized the Sephiroth, but as long as I am trapped here...
The connection gives out, and Tear is returned to herself. Luke takes her to Belkend to speak to a doctor. Here we finally get an answer to her mysterious illness: fonons are the mana of this world, and Tear, like any magic-user, absorbs them into her body for later distribution. The Seventh Fonons she's been carrying are tainted with miasma, and she's absorbed over 100 times what a Seventh Fonist expects to pick up during their lifetime. It seems to happen whenever the team operates the passage rings — which, of course, they cannot avoid doing. The short of it is that Tear is likely to die. Luke can speak to the various party members separately, but they all have the same advice: he should talk to Tear.
- Luke:: ...I'm sorry.
Tear: Why?
Luke: I really want to tell you to stop lowering the Outer Lands... ... I thought about it as hard as I could, but... If the Outer Lands fall, then lots of people will die... So I can't just tell you to stop... My uncle and Emperor Peony have both agreed to help... I can't tell everyone to stop now after all this...
Tear: You idiot. What's with that face? What you're saying is right. If you really had told me to stop, I'd have lost all respect for you. Thank you. I was right to believe in you.
Luke: You're crazy!
Tear: What?
Luke: You can't possibly be okay with this! You always try to act tough! Say you were at least a little scared or sad or something! If you'd just tell me how you really feel...
Tear: It's not an act. ...I'm sorry. Please let me be alone for a while.
Luke:: No. I'm staying right here.
Tear: Luke! Please! (weeping) I don't want anyone to see me like this...
Luke: Then I'll turn around.
(he DOES)
The Jade Gang set out to reconfigure the last three Sephiroth. In the Meggiora Highlands, they are stopped by Legretta, who is certain that history will play out as the Seventh Fonstone says. This is news to Tear, who was in charge of finding it, and Guy realizes that it was kept in Hod. Meanwhile, as Luke hacks the Sephiroth with his hyperresonance, Jade confirms that Tear is absorbing an abnormal amount of Seventh Fonons from the passage ring. He hypothesizes that the miasma comes from the core itself, and the Jade Gang retreat to Belkend to see if those techheads have any ideas.
En route, they encounter Aston, the Sole Survivor of Class M. To distract himself from the grief, he has constructed the Albiore III. They also encounter Spinoza, sole survivor of Class I, who steals the Albiore III. Of course, it's only got enough fuel for a test flight, and they corner him in Belkend. There, Spinoza apologizes: he's realized what a mess he made, and now he's The Atoner. Luke, who has been in those shoes, decides to give him a second chance, and Jade puts Spinoza to work on the anti-miasma plan. The Jade Gang then rush off to Daath, where the next Sephiroth supposedly located... with only Anise lingering behind to wonder, aside, why everyone's so gullible. In Daath, Anise is able to lead the team directly to the Sephiroth, almost as if she's been there before. It's pretty open-and-shut, but Anise does a very, very poor job of hiding that something else is going on in her head.
- Jade: ...Anise, if you sound TOO suspicious, I'm going to feel like asking you to explain.
The final Sephiroth is at Mt. Roneal; but, before the team can head there, Tear and Asch decide to head to Ortion Cavern, leaving Luke et al to catch up. They find Maj. Legretta supervising the packing-up of the fomicry research lab; surprisingly, she lets them through, as their missions do not conflict. Within, Tear is trying to warn Van of the Miasma Sickness she's been picking up from the passage rings, since he ought to have the same problem. Here, Van finally goes on his Motive Rant: he's what's absorbing Lorelei from the planet's core, because he needs that many Seventh Fonons to carry out his "clone the world" project. (This is why he wanted to stop the Jade Gang from stabilizing the planet's core: it was releasing extra Seventh Fonons.) Lorelei's existence also causes most replicas to become unstable, as it (Lorelei) draws Seventh Fonons out of them and back to himself. By killing Lorelei, Van not only gets his replica world but can stop the reading of the Score. But he needs Asch's cooperation at the Absorption Gate to make this happen. He leaves, and the team retreats to Belkend, where Spinoza confirms he's come up with a (technobabble) solution to keep miasma pinned up in the core. (TLDR, it's coming out through the Sephiroth, and lowering the Outer Lands will fix it.)
Before hitting Mt. Roneal, Jade takes the team to Keterburg, where Nephry tells him that Saphir — Dist's real name — has taken ill. (He's been waiting for the Jade Gang to "come take the Flightstone" from him this whole time.) Jade "talks" with him, learning the condition of Mt. Roneal, and then has the military police arrest him.
Skit 283 — Jade and Dist
- Guy: Jade really is nasty to Dist, isn't he?
Anise: I don't know. I think they like each other.
Guy: They've known each other since they were kids, right?
Anise: Yeah, it looks like it. Nephry was nice to Dist, too, and everyone here seems to think well of him. He must've been a cute kid.
Tear: Maybe Jade has that attitude toward Dist in order to hide his real feelings.
Guy: Hah hah hah! Maybe so... Kind of like getting angry at someone you've fallen in love with.
Tear (realizing she Resembles That Remark): (leaves)
Anise: Heh heh heh. Jade sure is cute, himself.
Jade (entering conversation): Hmm, a fascinating conversation. Cute, is it?
Anise: Whoa!
Mt. Roneal features the hardest Boss Fight in the game up until this point: Largo, Arietta and Legretta, at the same time. But afterwards, all three are washed away by an avalanche. With Sync dead, these three dealt with, Dist imprisoned and Asch having turned into a Sixth Ranger for the good guys, the God-Generals are officially finished. But once the Jade Gang get into the Sephiroth, they discover that Van has managed to Reverse the Polarity on the system: memory particles are now flowing into the Radiation Gate, and the whole world is about to fall. Van is at the Absorption Gate. It's now or never.
The Radiation Gate features the hardest Boss Fight in the game up until this point: Dorian General Van Grants, Vandesdelca Musto Fende — the man who destroyed Hod, the man who wants to destroy the world for destroying Hod. As he's defeated, he — like Sync before him — staggers away and falls into the planet's core. Luke hastily hacks the Absorption Gate to send the commands they had originally planned to send from the Radiation Gate — Asch chips in his own hyperresonance via Isophone — and the Outer Lands, all of them, settle peacefully into the Qliphoth, holding the miasma back into the core.
- Lorelei (on the Isophone): Asch... Luke... I will send you the key! Use it to set me free! One who would seize glory... is trying... to capture me!
Luke isn't sure what this means, but knows he'll have time to contemplate it later. It's time to go home and celebrate... for the team has saved the world.
Act III
Luke's journey, from leaving for Akzeriuth to successfully lowering the Outer Lands, is established to have taken about four months. In the Time Skip since then, Luke's been rattling around the manor, and once again the party has scattered to the four winds; with Guy having returned to Malkuth and resumed his noble title, Luke has been alone the whole time. However, his father and General Cecille bring news: Van's sword, which he left planted in the floor of the Absorption Gate when he was slain, has disappeared. Luke travels to Sheridan, borrows the Albiore II, and heads to Yulia City. Here, he learns that Asch has been by recently, hoping to access the planet's core. (Luke keeps remembering that last Isophone call from Lorelei about sending them a key.)To Tear, Luke admits that he's lost. He went on a journey — the whole second act of the game — to change himself, but is only now realizing he never had a "him" to change. Tear offers to accompany him as he tries to find himself.
At Daath, they find Anise grifting, pretending to be a tour guide for money. She explains that her family is still in debt and her parents still getting conned into things. Ion's been resting, and is concerned for Luke; as a replica himself, he knows some of what's going through Luke's head. He's also saddened that people are still coming to hear the Score, apparently unaware — or unable to admit — that Auldrant has been cast loose of that comforting, smothering blanket. Lastly, Guy arrives while the four are talking. He has learned that someone broke Dist out of prison, and that Dist then broke Mohs out of prison. He's also learned that Asch has headed to St. Binah with the intention of "setting Lorelei free," whatever that means. Ion needs to stay home, so Luke, Tear, Anise and Guy head out.
At St. Binah, Elder McGovern informs them that Asch has gone to Shurrey Hill, and they head after him. Within, they find him dueling with Major Legretta, raising the possibility that the entire Goldfish Poop Gang — not to mention Van himself — have survived. Legretta specifically wants "the Key of Lorelei" from Asch. Asch, meanwhile, wants to free Lorelei, as its (Lorelei's) efforts to free itself are restarting the core vibrations. Luke wants to know where Lorelei is trapped, but Asch reminds him that Lorelei told them both, leading Luke to suffer another bout of inferiority — Asch, the original, understood, but Luke, the replica, didn't.
Back at St. Binah, the group run into Jade, who is organizing relief forces: Malkuth's standing army at Chesedonia was attacked, and Gen. Frings wounded. The group flies over to Grand Chokmah to get the full story. Frings reports that his group was attacked by soldiers flying the banner of Kimlasca, but suspects a literal False Flag Operation: the troops all had dead eyes. He also says that a healer has been by and reported that it's too late. The Jade Gang convey him to the cathedral as his final request, where Aslan Frings dies of his injuries.
Luke reports to Emperor Peony, who deputizes him with an official imperial inquiry to Kimlasca about what's going on. He also explains that he's trying to find Asch because the latter has the Key of Lorelei, which may be able to help with the core vibrations. They ask Luke about Lorelei's last Isophone call:
- Luke: Umm... "I'll send you the key." "Save me." And then something about "one who would seize glory" trying to capture Lorelei.
Everyone else: (!!!)
Guy: Luke! Why didn't you say anything about it before now?!
Luke: What? Well, I didn't get what it meant...
Jade: He couldn't have known. Luke doesn't know Ancient Ispanian.
Luke: What are you talking about?
Tear: The Ancient Ispanian word for "One who would seize glory" is "Vandesdelca."
Luke: Are you saying Master Van trapped Lorelei?!
Tear: That's what Asch thinks. Or rather, that's what he heard from Lorelei.
Over in Baticul, Natalia is furious that her troops in Chesedonia were attacked by Malkuth soldiers. That said, four months of travel and saving the world together apparently does result in True Companions; when Luke asks to speak to King Ingobert directly, she arranges it without question (and of course is pacified by the news that it must be a False Flag Operation since both nations were "attacked" by "each other" at the same time). Jade is concerned by that whole "dead eyes" thing: it suggests fomicry. Natalia resolves to head to Daath and call a summit; it seems that Mohs is still trying to start his freaking war, and it's time for Auldrant's heads of state to move away from those dusty old fonstones once and for all. Only Anise is nervous about returning to Daath.
As they arrive, Tear has a re-emergence of her miasma allergy. Ion brings her into the Cathedral to rest, but is immediately dragged away by Anise, who claims there's a crisis. As the Jade Gang follow, they're apprehended by Legretta. The person who stops her is... Arietta, who is concerned for Ion's safety: Mohs is going to make Ion read the Seventh Fonstone, which will prove fatal to the Fon Master. While the two God-Generals stand off, the Jade Gang dash off in pursuit, only to be stopped by Mohs' final wild card: Anise herself. She's been a spy this whole time, and Mohs has her parents. Plus, he's got replicas — and not just any replicas: Iemon, Aslan Frings, Mary Gardios (Guy's long-dead sister). The party cannot bring themselves to turn their weapons on their friends, so Tear uses her hypno-music. The team heads to Mt. Zaleho, the sweltering-hot volcano, where the Seventh Fonstone is kept.
Mohs finally hears the Score he's always been wanting to hear:
- "...Which will ultimately lead to the downfall of Auldrant."
"ND 2019: The forces of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear shall march northward, through the Rugnica Plains. After inflicting atrocities upon the villages in their wake, the army shall surround the fortress capital. Within a fortnight, the city shall fall. The Kimlascan army will stain the Malkuth throne with the blood of its last emperor. Their howls of victory shall resound throughout the land."
"ND 2020: A mountain of corpses shall bury the fortress capital. Death and disease shall envelop the city. The plague born thence shall become a new poison unto humanity, killing all within its reach. Its spread shall mark the true end of Malkuth. Kimlasca shall enjoy decades of prosperity as the plague of Malkuth grows. Ultimately, the plague shall be brought into the Kimlascan kingdom by a single man."
"...The light of the sacred flame shall approach a Kimlascan city of fon machines, seeking a way to purify the taint. There, salvation shall be found through the use of a forbidden power..."
Ion is dying, and it's too late to save him. But he finds a way to do something productive with his death: he absorbs the miasma-tainted fonons from Tear's body into his own, curing her of her miasma allergy. He thanks Anise with his dying breath.
Of course, Arietta isn't so settled. Despite her wounds from stopping Legretta, she challenges Anise to a Duel to the Death to avenge Ion. Anise agrees... and then runs off to cry. When Luke finds her, she confirms that she's been spying on Mohs' behalf for the entire game, arranging the various ambushes and God-General encounters because her parents are in enormous financial debt to Mohs. She is Easily Forgiven and rejoins the party.
The Jade Gang act on Ion's last clue — "the Kimlascan city of fon machines," AKA Belkend — to see what can be done about the miasma. There, they find several people keeling over dead: Jade identifies it as being similar to what happens when someone has an averse reaction to having their fomicry data extracted; apparently, someone's going around reading the Score to lure unsuspecting civilians in. They resolve to figure out who is doing all this data extraction, but it has to be put on hold until later. Meanwhile, Luke frets that he can't use hyperresonance to just erase the miasma entirely; the strain would be too great. To spread it out successfully would require the participation — and, for that matter, the lives — of some ten thousand Seventh Fonists.
Spinoza says that Asch has headed to Mt. Roneal to try and find a solution to the miasma problem; as usual for this act of the game, they chase after him. There, they learn — from the Dark Wings, who have been in Asch's employ since basically Act II but haven't been mentioned because they simply aren't necessary — that Asch is searching for the Jewel of Lorelei — half of the Key of Lorelei, in addition to the Sword of Lorelei. The Jade Gang infers, and the Dark Wings agree, that Asch must already have the "Sword" component. As they pass by the spot where the God-Generals were buried in the avalanche, Luke also finds a locket, marked "ND 1999, in commemoration of the birth of my daughter, Meryl". Natalia's birth name is, of course, Meryl. She was born in ND 1999. This locket, presumably the possession of a God-General, belongs to Natalia's parent.
Asch is frustrated that Luke doesn't have the Jewel — given that Asch indeed got the Sword, it seems obvious the Jewel would've gone to Luke. He explains that the place Lorelei is imprisoned is in the body of Commandant General Van Grants, who absorbed Lorelei when he fell into the core.
In Baticul, the party try to apprehend Mohs, but with Dist's help he manages to turn himself into some sort of monster-thing and fly away. The party then head up to King Ingobert's chambers, where Luke manufactures an excuse to talk to His Majesty alone. (And by "alone" we mean "with everyone else in the party".) He shows everyone the locket — the first time anyone except him has seen it. Ingobert confirms that the locket is indeed about Natalia... and Anise recalls seeing it around the neck of God-General Largo the Black Lion. They resolve to speak with the nanny, who is currently vacationing in Chesedonia, but no one has any particular doubts.
The party travel to Chesedonia under the ruse that the rogue Score-reader, the one stealing everyone's DNA, is there; they are surprised to find that they were accidentally correct. Not only that, but it's Sync, who mocks Anise by imitating Ion's voice. They also confirm, by meeting Natalia's nanny privately, that the locket belonged to Meryl's father, whom she (the nanny) calls "Badaq."
As mentioned earlier, the Six God-Generals, the Quirky Miniboss Squad, are all Evil Counterparts and Foils to playable characters. With this revelation, the nature of those relationships are finally clarified. In order:
- Asch is The Resenter to Luke: in Luke, the Spare to the Throne with loving parents and an Arranged Marriage, he sees who he was supposed to be. To Asch, there is Always Someone Better, and that person is Luke. But the relationship is reciprocal: Luke sees himself as Asch's Replacement Goldfish and therefore an inferior copy; there is Always Someone Better, and to Luke it's Asch. This omni-directional love-hate relationship — each of them jealous that the other got to be the man he always wanted to be — essentially defines how the two relate to each other.
- Major Legretta is a Mentor and Parental Substitute to Tear; basically every time she shows up, she has a comment on something Tear could be doing better. Both are also Consummate Professionals, Long Range Fighters and the Number Twos of their respective parties.
- Jade's counterpart is Dist; not only is it that Everyone Went to School Together, not only are both gifted fontech engineers, but both lost their Mentor in the form of Professor Nebilim.
- While Sync is the counterpart to Ion, he's also one for Guy, as both are Fragile Speedsters obsessed with revenge. This is by far the most tenuous link amongst the six.
- Anise's rivalry with fellow Praetorian Guard Arietta has been well established. Additionally, both are Black Magician Girls, both are The Beastmaster, and both are the youngest persons on their teams.
- Natalia will eventually have to face her own father Largo. To be clear, Largo knows, and in every interaction he has with Natalia, he takes on a mentor role similar to how Legretta does with Tear.
- And Van's counterpart is obviously Mieu. Since one is the Big Bad while the other is a Tagalong Kid, and since one is a One-Man Army while the other canonically hides in the item bag during fights, they could not be more similar. These similarities overwhelm his parallels to Luke and Asch, the protégés he has used and abused; Tear, his own sister, who wants to Take a Third Option where he wants to destroy the world; Jade, who invented much of the technology he abuses; and Guy, who experienced the exact same Dark and Troubled Past he did but has abandoned his quest for revenge.
Back in Yulia City, Teodoro informs the party of excessive consumption of Seventh Fonons, which can only mean fomicry. Even worse, one of the locations isn't a location at all: it's moving. The Jade Gang, investigating, find the mobile island of Feres, which used to be part of the Hod archipelago and shouldn't be free-floating. Arietta is on guard here; she's from Feres, which was destroyed along with Hod, and is eager to see Master Van fulfill his promise of bringing her family back. Elsewhere, Mohs succeeds at the next major part of Van's plan: replicating the entire island of Hod, which he now calls "Eldrant" — causing consternation as doing so results in the consumption of other landmasses nearby. If Mohs' "New Order of Lorelei" is allowed to continue, he can Kill and Replace the entirety of Auldrant. However, he is losing control of his monster-thing form, and the Six God-Generals turn their backs on him in disdain.
Arietta sends Largo to determine the terms of her duel with Anise. They meet in Cheagle Woods, so that Arietta can avenge the liger queen. Each of the God-Generals are fought three times, and this is Arietta's third battle — and this time it's a Duel to the Death. Afterwards, Anise apologizes to Arietta's corpse, but Largo reminds her not to do that, as this would dishonor what Arietta was willing to die for. Luke addresses him as "Badaq," and even though Largo proclaims That Man Is Dead, Natalia's curiosity is roused.
Unfortunately, curiosity must wait, as the summit Natalia called for is finally to happen. And none too soon: as the Jade Gang travel around picking up heads of state (with Teodoro standing in for the Order of Lorelei), they find the entire world overrun with replicas, all speaking of reaching the "Tower of Rem". The one upside to all this chaos is that the diplomatic bonds between Malkuth and Kimlasca are getting stronger every day as both nations prepare to oppose the New Order of Lorelei.
Natalia and Jade go to talk to their respective sovereigns about stopping the Planet Storm entirely, as it has been repurposed to put Some Kind of Force Field around Eldrant and protect it from any interference. As Luke waits for diplomacy to complete, he returns to the manor. Here, Asch makes an Isophone call and asks to meet up, and Luke makes him come back to the mansion — a place Asch hasn't been in seven years. While he's brought the Sword of Lorelei to every Sephiroth, its Find My Location button has failed to locate the Jewel of Lorelei, and he needs help. Besides, Luke wants to use the sword as an Amplifier Artifact for his hyperresonance, in the hope of avoiding having to consume too many lives. However, Asch won't give it up. Luke is also able to "accidentally" introduce Asch to Duke and Madam Fabre, allowing Asch to reclaim a bit of the familial relationship he had to give up.
Malkuth and Kimlasca agree to shut down the Planet Storm, realizing that "The End of the World as We Know It" is far preferable to "The End Of The World, Period." However, their attempts to attend the summit are derailed when they trip over Spinoza, who just told Asch that his plan to destroy the miasma, using the Sword of Lorelei to help and all the replicas at the Tower of Rem in place of the proposed 10,000 Seventh Fonists, is too dangerous. Of course, Asch went to do it anyway. The Jade Gang rush off to stop him.
The Tower of Rem is crowded with replicas, all of whom have come here for refuge: the "originals" want nothing to do with them (to be sure, there have been stories of replicas showing up at their own funerals, which would creep out anyone), and Mohs has promised them salvation at Eldrant. They also run into Dist, the third time he — or, rather, a robot he controls — is fought. After it's defeated, Dist tries to use a Self Destruct button on the robot to pull a Taking You with Me, but Luke's hyperresonance defuses the blast. Finally, they confront Asch, who isn't ready to go through with the plan: for all he's Darker and Edgier, he's not a murderer. He has asked the replicas whether they're willing to pull a Heroic Sacrifice on Auldrant's behalf, in exchange for the other nations taking in any replicas that haven't made it here; the replicas, led by a clone of Guy's sister Mary, have yet to achieve consensus. Asch flounces off, telling them to DM him once they've decided.
The Jade Gang, arriving late to the summit, explain what Asch is up to. Nobody present — not King Ingobert, not Emperor Peony, not Mayor Teodoro — is comfortable with what Asch is proposing. They are even less comfortable when Jade suggests Luke do it instead — even the cold calculus of The Needs of the Many is no comfort when the "few" is someone you've come to respect.
- Jade: I would understand if you chose to hate me. Even if you died, we would still have an original with stable powers. The miasma would be gone, and fewer replicas would place less strain on resources.
Luke: Jade... Would you really ask me to—
Jade: I would ask you to die, yes. If I were an emperor with a country to consider. But as your friend...I feel compelled to stop you.
Luke: ...I never knew that you thought of me as a friend.
Jade: Really? I suppose that's understandable. I am a terribly cold person. ...I'm sorry, Luke.
- Peony: If you eliminate the miasma, this summit will have resolved the last of its issues. Aside from the miasma... We've agreed to an alliance, to military action against Eldrant, and to halting the Planet Storm.
Teodoro: Yes. With this... the summit is officially over.
Ingobert VI: But there's no need to rush. If you still have things left to do, take care of them first. Or... should you decide to run, know that we would not pursue you.
But Luke doesn't run. ...Nor does Asch, who has resolved to do it instead. Luke protests that he's worthless and incompetent — he couldn't even receive the Jewel of Lorelei — which Asch takes personally, since, "worthless and incompetent" or not, Luke still succeeded at taking everything from him. The two squabble over the Sword — only then noticing that its Find My Location indicator has lit up. Luke can't find the Jewel because he absorbed it into himself. By cooperating with Asch and using their hyperresonances in unison, Luke extracts the Jewel and succeeds at nullifying the miasma for good and all, with both Crown Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear and Lord Gailardia Galan Gardios of Malkuth promising to (the clone of) Mary that they will provide for the remaining replicas. The miasma is finally neutralized... and Luke is alive.
Of course, Luke channeled way more Seventh Fonons than is approved by the FDA, and Jade insists that Luke talk to a doctor in Belkend — the same one that inspected Tear. Doctor Shu tells Luke that the Seventh Fonons which bind his replica cells together are starting to separate, and he's doomed to inevitably turn into a pile of mush. There is no cure. Luke, now Secretly Dying, decides to keep the news to himself... though he can't fool Jade, who suspected this all along. He also can't fool Mieu, who stayed with Luke while he got his bad news; when they retire to the House Fabre mansion, Mieu immediately tells Tear, who begs Luke to never keep secrets from her again.
The next morning, Largo the Black Lion comes to Baticul as an emissary of the New Order of Lorelei. He asks Baticul's intentions towards the nation, and Ingobert declares their willingness to defend themselves if necessary. Ingobert then takes Natalia aside and tells her the truth about her parentage. Natalia, distraught, chases after Largo, with Luke chasing after her; by the time he arrives, she has Largo at arrowpoint, asking why he joined the bad guys. Badaq explains that he was once a mercenary, doing his thing, with a beloved wife Sylvia. But when he came home, both Sylvia and Meryl were gone — Meryl spirited away to become the Replacement Goldfish she is today... and Sylvia to the harbor, where she drowned herself in grief. And of course, no one gave a damn because it was all in the Score. So Badaq joined up with Van, the only person who seems to think that shit like this isn't actually okay.
The Jade Gang's next job is to stop the Planet Storm, and they head to the Absorption Gate to shut it down using the Jewel of Lorelei. There, the remaining God-Generals and Mohs have already congregated, along with another Ion clone: Van is reforming himself as a physical body which contains Lorelei within it. Re-incorporated, he hands Mohs the Seventh Fonstone, which he also obtained while in the core. He then retreats while Largo chooses to Hold the Line. It's the third time we've fought him. He dies, proud of the brave woman his daughter has become. Meanwhile, though, Van has escaped with the monster-thing that used to be Mohs and the Ion clone, who is reading the complete Score.
It ends with miasma consuming Auldrant and killing everyone. This doesn't seem to bother Mohs at all, which tells you what a Principles Zealot he's become. In any case, Lorelei reacts to the presence of both Jewel and Sword, causing Van to Freak Out. He and the God-Generals retreat to Eldrant, leaving the Ion copy behind. Anise takes him back to Daath and names him "Florian," meaning "innocent one;" there he's treated as a typical boy, allowed to play and goof off. The Fon Master we escorted for the first two acts of the game will, apparently, be the last "Fon Master Ion". Meanwhile, the Jade Gang head to the Radiation Gate and close that too. Their main opposition is Grand Maestro Mohs the Monster-Thing, who melts into a pile of mush upon defeat — the same thing Luke should expect to experience eventually, though without the "monster-thing" aspect.
At Grand Chokmah, Jade syncs up with the Malkuthian and Kimlascan military about assaults on Eldrant, all of which will be cover for the Albiore landing the real threat. Asch arrives to talk, and Luke tries to give him the Jewel, believing he has a better chance since he's not an inferior copy—
- Asch: You're me! How can you just accept calling yourself inferior?! We're the same! Why don't you try to fight and prove who you are?! Why can't you say you're superior?! Why do you insist on putting yourself down?!
Finally, it's time.
While the armies of Kimlasca and Malkuth stage a frontal assault, Noelle lands the Albiore II in a blind spot of Eldrant's Anti-Air guns. There they find the Albiore III, which Asch used to ram one of the guns; he's somewhere ahead. They also find Legretta, prepared to make her Last Stand. As she dies, she confesses that she had a Bodyguard Crush on Van.note Hey, remember how Legretta is a foil for Tear?...
Luke falls through a trap door that the rest of the Jade Gang elude. While they attempt to reach him, Luke finds himself trapped with Asch. The room essentially has one of those stand-on-a-pressure-plate puzzles... but the only thing they have to stand on it with is themselves. So Luke and Asch have a Duel Boss fight to determine which one is stronger. After losing, Asch gives him the Sword of Lorelei and stays behind to Hold the Line.
As the party make their way through Eldrant, Guy is astonished to discover (a replica of) his own childhood home. Natalia marvels at the positive things fomicry can do, and Jade points out it's a tool like any other, its ethical value dictated by how it is used. Luke points out that the Score is similar to this as well, and wonders if Yulia Jue intended for mankind to be shackled to it so closely. Tear, hearing this, finally comprehends the seventh and last Fonic Hymn, completing her mastery over the entire septet.
Asch's Hold the Line efforts go poorly, and he dies. As he does, he unlocks "second-order hyperresonance" in Luke... much to Sync's disdain. He flings himself into battle, failing as all the others have. The Six God-Generals are finished... and after the Final Battle, so is Van.
Eldrant begins to collapse, but Luke must stay behind to free Lorelei, which is still infused in Van's corpse. One by one, the Player Party characters step up to say their farewells:
- Jade: Luke. How you've changed. ... But no matter how much you change or regret your actions, not all of what you've done will be forgiven. That's why you must come back alive... or rather, I hope you do.
Guy: I'll be waiting. It's lonely being a servant without a master.
Luke: Hey, you're not my servant anymore.
Guy: So I'm not a servant in the manor. I'd still serve as your friend.
Anise: I'm going to reform the Order for Ion. But in order to do that, I need a patron. So... come home.
Natalia: Luke... live... please. I don't want to lose any more people dear to me. Not to protect Kimlasca. To live your life, understand?
Mieu: Master...
Luke: Your job's done now. Go home, and be proud of what you did.
Mieu: I'll be waiting for your return, Master.
Luke: Thanks.Tear: Come home! You have to come home. You have to! I'll be waiting... always.
Luke: I will. I promise. I'll come home.
And then, so quietly it doesn't even make it into the subtitles:
- Tear: Luke... I love you.
As Luke descends into the planet's core one final time, Asch's body falls into his arms. Lorelei thanks him for freeing the world of its Downer Ending. Lorelei then ascends into the Fon Belt, where it's wanted to be all along, joining the other elemental sentiences that control the other fonons. Below, Luke and Asch begin to glow white.
The credits roll, gradually overtaken by Tear singing the Grand Fonic Hymn.
In The Stinger, we find that the hymn is Diegetic Music: Tear sits on a rock in Tataroo Valley, overlooking the ruins of Eldrant out to sea. Four people come out to join her.
- Natalia: You didn't come. I believe your presence was requested at Luke's coming-of-age ceremony at the Duke's manor.note
Tear: I'm not interested in some ceremony in front of Luke's grave.
Anise: That's why... the both of you came here, isn't it?
Guy: He said he'd be back, so let the others sit around and tell stories at his grave. But I won't be joining them.
Jade (after a respectful pause): We should be heading back soon. The valley is dangerous at night.
Tear nods and stands to follow them... but as she does, something catches her eye. Someone is walking towards them: white coat over black robes and long red hair, with the Key of Lorelei strapped to his back. "Why are... you here?" she asks, and the fellow replies, "This place has a nice view of Hod. ...And also, I promised someone."
Tear, crying, runs towards him.
Who is he? Is it Luke? Is it Asch? Is it some new composite of both at once? And why, when the Central Theme of the game is to ignore what's on the page and write your own ending, did you think the creators would ever tell us?
